Project Shelter Wakadogo in Uganda, which was founded in the wake of war and now educates over 450 children with one of the highest student retention rates in the country, has been named the winner of the inaugural World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity.
The five World’s Best School Prizes, founded this year by T4 Education in collaboration with Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture and American Express, are the world’s most prestigious education prizes and see winning schools share an award of $250,000.
The five World’s Best School Prizes – for Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity and Supporting Healthy Lives – celebrate schools everywhere for the pivotal role they play in developing the next generation of learners and for their enormous contribution to society’s progress, especially in the wake of COVID.
Project Shelter Wakadogo was chosen as the winner of the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity from among the Top 3 finalists for the prize, which also included Pinelands North Primary School in South Africa and Escola Evandro Ferreira Dos Santos in Brazil.
The Prizes were founded by T4 Education in collaboration with Templeton World Charity Foundation, Accenture, American Express, Yayasan Hasanah, and the Lemann Foundation to share the best practices of schools that are transforming the lives of their students and making a real difference in their communities.
Vikas Pota, Founder of T4 Education and the World’s Best School Prizes, said:
“Congratulations to Project Shelter Wakadogo for winning the World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity. It’s time for world leaders to sit up and listen to institutions like this outstanding Ugandan school.
“Far too many children will continue to be left behind in the wake of COVID unless governments take urgent action to tackle the education crisis. As a first step, they must turn to the knowledge and experience contained within our schools because those at the front of education know better than anyone else the change we need to see.
“We founded the World’s Best School Prizes to surface the expertise of trailblazing schools from every corner of the globe so that leaders can learn from their incredible stories.”
