The moment has finally arrived. It’s time to reveal the winners of the world’s most prestigious education awards. To find out which trailblazing schools have shone above all others. Whose innovative work sees them counted among the World’s Best Schools.
This year’s winners share a $250,000 prize, their stories are celebrated across all corners of the world, and they receive a global platform to transform education and change lives.
You’ve been following their inspirational stories all year. But has your favourite school made it? We’re about to find out.
The winner of the Worlds’ Best School Prize for Community Collaboration 2023:
SPARK Soweto, an independent, partially government-funded kindergarten and primary school in Johannesburg, South Africa, which has become a catalyst for change for its disadvantaged community that was once symbolic of the struggle against Apartheid.
The winner of the Worlds’ Best School Prize for Environmental Action 2023:
Institución Educativa Municipal Montessori sede San Francisco, a government primary and secondary school located in Pitalito, Huila, Colombia, which is tackling the huge environmental challenge of coffee production and turning waste into eco-friendly products.
The winner of the Worlds’ Best School Prize for Innovation 2023:
The Riverside School, an independent international school in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, which has gained worldwide recognition for its groundbreaking, student-centric approach to education with its I CAN pedagogical model.
The winner of the Worlds’ Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity 2023:
The Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School, which is helping to heal longstanding divisions in dark times as the only bilingual, integrated Jewish-Arab primary-secondary school in Israel.
The winner of the Worlds’ Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives 2023:
EEMTI Joaquim Bastos Gonçalves, a government secondary school in Carnaubal, Ceará, Brazil, which has provided a lifeline to students struggling to reintegrate into society since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The winner of the new Community Choice Award:
The winners of the five World’s Best School Prizes were chosen by an independent vote of an expert Judging Academy based on rigorous criteria.
In addition, a new Community Choice Award was presented this year to Escola Municipal Professor Edson Pisani in Brazil after it won the most votes of all the World’s Best School Prizes finalists in a Public Vote. It will now receive membership to T4 Education’s new Best School to Work programme, an independent, evidence-based mechanism to certify schools for their culture and help them transform their working environment to attract and retain the best teachers.
Applications open for the World’s Best School Prizes 2024
Applications also opened today for the World’s Best School Prizes 2024.
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. The Prizes were established to share the best practices of schools that are transforming the lives of their students and making a real difference to their communities.
The Prizes are open to all schools who teach students in compulsory schooling, and are legally registered with their respective Ministry of Education or government regulatory authority, including kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, and online schools.
Winning schools next year will share a prize fund of $50,000.
Applications close on February 23 2024 at 23.59 GMT
