Canadian teacher wins $1m Global Teacher Prize

Maggie MacDonnell from the Canadian Artic has been named as the winner of the annual Global Teacher Prize. The winner was announced by a video link with astronauts on the International Space Station. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  congratulated her saying that she was " shaping the future". Ms MacDonnell teaches at a remote village school in the Canadian Artic. Mr Trudeau further said that there are no roads to Ikusik school in Salluit, it is only accessible by air and it is a very cold place. Ms MacDonnell has worked to improve the health and life chance of an isolated, deprived community of young Inuit people. She spoke of the impact on the community of high levels of youth suicides. She described how it felt to be a teacher experiencing the suicidal deaths of a student. She said the memory of such deaths haunted her, she wanted the prize to shed light on the problem. She also recalled the silence, stillness and empty desk in that classroom. She said,"I didn't know until I came to Salluit that that was a Canadian reality". The prize is aimed at raising the status of teaching profession with a show business style ceremony with fanfare and famous names.

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