Thousands of applications and nominations, 50 shortlisted schools, 15 trailblazing finalists for the third edition of the world’s number one education awards. And it all comes down to this.
It’s time to reveal the winners of the World’s Best School Prizes 2024.
The World’s Best School Prize for Community Collaboration
Colegio María de Guadalupe, an independent school in Buenos Aires, Argentina, empowers economically vulnerable students with a comprehensive model that blends academic learning with professional development, transforming employment outcomes and fostering community success.
The World’s Best School Prize for Environmental Action
Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, an independent kindergarten through secondary school in New Delhi, India, tackles water scarcity and pollution through innovative projects like hydroponics and biogas plants. Faced with significant environmental challenges that also include waste disposal and rapid population growth, the school is driven by a mission to cultivate eco-conscious citizens capable of addressing these pressing issues.
The World’s Best School Prize for Innovation
CM RISE School Vinoba, Ratlam, a state kindergarten through secondary school in Ratlam, India, is a beacon of innovation in public education, originally founded for tribal girls in an urban slum community hesitant to embrace formal education. Facing low enrolment and attendance, alongside severe infrastructural decay, the school’s leadership, rejuvenated in 2021, launched a transformative journey grounded in resilience and empowerment for its 577 students.
The World’s Best School Prize for Overcoming Adversity
The First Ukrainian School in Poland by the Unbreakable Ukraine Foundation emerged as a charity school in March 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now its three schools serve 1,500 Ukrainian refugee children in Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław, Poland. When war broke out, 10 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes for an indefinite period. Most of them were mothers who primarily saved children, many fleeing to Poland as Ukraine’s closest neighbour. Established to help those in need, the school offers tailored education and emotional support to build resilience and integration into Polish society, ensuring continuity in their education.
The World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives
Istituto Galilei-Costa-Scarambone, a state secondary school in Lecce, Italy, has forged a path in combating bullying and enhancing mental wellbeing through its revolutionary student-led initiative, Mabasta (“stop it”). Mabasta began in 2016 after students were moved by a fellow student’s suicide attempt due to bullying. It is a youth movement that fights from below against all forms of bullying, cyberbullying and body shaming among young people. The initiative, which has now spread far beyond the school’s walls, champions a proactive anti-bullying strategy and has already engaged over 35,000 students across Italy with its unique peer-led model.
Community Choice Award
The winners of the five World’s Best School Prizes were chosen by a Judging Academy, comprising distinguished leaders all across the globe based on rigorous criteria.
A Public Vote was also held among all 50 schools shortlisted for the five Prizes, with the school gaining the most votes – Kalvi International Public School – being given the Community Choice Award.
Kalvi International Public School, an independent school in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, transforms lives through education and sports, empowering students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve excellence. With top-quality facilities and active community outreach, the school champions holistic development and societal integration.
Congratulations to all the winning schools, and to all the schools who were shortlisted. Your exceptional work is changing lives in your classrooms and far beyond their walls. By telling your stories to the world, it is our hope that we can share your best practices, inspire others to follow in your footsteps, and give you a voice at the top table to help improve education everywhere.
Applications open for the World’s Best School Prizes 2025
Applications opened today for the World’s Best School Prizes 2025.
The five World’s Best School Prizes – for Community Collaboration, Environmental Action, Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, and Supporting Healthy Lives – were established in the wake of COVID in 2022 to give a platform to schools that are changing lives in their classrooms and far beyond their walls, sharing their best practices to help improve education everywhere.
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.
Applications close on March 5, 2025
