Judging Process

Our judging process for the World Education Medals is meticulously designed to ensure a thorough assessment of all nominees. The most impactful and inspiring changemakers will be given a platform amongst the world’s leading figures in education.

We aim to bring together a diverse group of individuals from around the world, each contributing a unique set of innovations and ideas. By connecting them, we are leveraging approaches that will help bridge the gaps in education.

Our global criteria

All nominees across the three Medals will be judged against three global criteria which we believe lay the foundations for identifying changemakers in education everywhere.

Impact

The nominee must demonstrate the concrete difference they have made in improving education. We are looking for evidence that the nominee’s work has led to tangible improvements to the lives and learning of students as well as those in the wider community, or has affected demonstrable change in the education ecosystem on a national or international level. Quantitative evidence is important here, such as how many students reached or measurable improvements to education outcomes, but so is displaying innovation and the overcoming of adversity to achieve these impacts.

Leadership

The nominee must demonstrate their leadership through example. Great changemakers do not act alone. They inspire a movement. Whether it is in one school, one community or across an entire nation, leaders have the ability to make things happen because they are the change they want to see in the world. We are looking for evidence that the nominee has carried others with them in their vision for change, that they have defined a goal for others to strive for, that they have inspired others to take action, and that their own actions have set a positive example that others have followed.

Advocacy

The nominee must demonstrate a track record showing how they have advocated for change. The nominee must explain how they have advocated for change, particularly where they are not in a position to enact that change themselves. Change doesn’t just come from the top. Often it is built from the bottom up. And that means people working every day to advocate for their cause. Here we are looking for evidence – ideally already in the public record – that nominees have been prominent advocates for improving education in some way. Whether that is through media articles, books, television or radio appearances, public talks, lobbying or leading a movement, we want to see the steps nominees have gone through to make those in power sit up and take notice of their ideas.

The judging process

Our judging process has two phases. First, our team makes a global assessment of all nominations across the three Medals to define 10 finalists for each Medal. Then a Global Jury and an Expert Jury assess the finalists and vote for the three winners.

1

Nomination review

Learn More ⟶

2

Selecting finalists

Learn More ⟶

3

Judging the winners

Learn More ⟶

Our timeline

These are the key dates for our 2024 cycle:

MARCH

Opening of nominations

April

Deadline for nominations

August

Public announcement of Top 10 finalists

October

Public announcement of the three winners

April

Deadline for nominations

October

Public announcement of the three winners

Our Jury

Our Global Jury

The Global Jury votes for the winners across the three Medals.

Mayank Dhingra

Senior Education Business Leader SEMA at HP Inc.

Vikas Pota

Founder and CEO of T4 Education

Marin Maurette

Head of Prizes, T4 Education

Our Expert Jury

Each Medal is also judged by a local Expert Jury.

Africa

Brian Schreuder

Retired Superintendent General & Specialist Advisor, South Africa

Joseph Nsengimana

Director, African Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, Mastercard Foundation

Vongai Nyahunzvi

Head of Africa and Chief Network Officer at Teach For All

Latin America

Mercedes Miguel

Minister of Education, Buenos Aires City Government, Argentina

Dionisio Garza-Sada

Founder & CEO of Talisis, Mexico

Lia Glaz

Executive Director of Telefonica Vivo Foundation Brazil

Asia

Vandana Goyal

Managing Trustee of Avanti Fellows, India

Lin Kobayashi

Co-Founder and Chair of the Board, UWC ISAK Japan

Sungsup Ra

Deputy Director General and Deputy Chief, Sectors Group at Asian Development Bank, Philippines

Nomination review: The path to being recognised as a leading figure in education starts with a nomination – either through a direct application from the candidate themselves or a nomination by someone else. Our team conducts an initial review of all submitted nominations across the three Medals to ensure they align with our global criteria. This determines the nominees who will proceed to the next stages for each of the three Medals.

Selecting finalists: Nominations that pass the initial review are shortlisted for inclusion among the Top 10 finalists. During this phase, we conduct our due diligence which involves a detailed verification process, where we may ask for references and additional evidence supporting their nomination and an invitation to an interview with us. After this, we will define the Top 10 finalists for each of the three Medals, comprising a total of 30 candidates, who will be publicly announced as finalists for the three World Education Medals.

Judging the winners: After the shortlist, the winners are judged. They are determined by the total sum of votes of our Global Jury, and of the respective local Expert Jury for each of the Medals. Our team puts together evaluation packages including the nomination form, extra information and evidence gathered through references and interviews that are sent on to the judges to assess. The sum of all votes will determine the winners of each of the three Medals.

Mayank Dhingra

Senior Education Business Leader SEMA at HP Inc.

Mayank Dhingra leads the Education Business Vertical for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa (SEMA) at HP Inc. His role is to provide commercial headship, strategic direction, solution frameworks, and thought leadership to the Education business line.

Mayank works with National Education Ministries to support country level education policy and to evangelize HP’s education proposition. He has spearheaded the regional development of HP’s Remote Learning Program, Smart Classroom Ecosystem, Innovation Labs, Digital Capability Program for Educators, and Pedagogy Consultancy Frameworks for governments and regulators.

He was previously with GEMS Education where he headed the Commercial line for a network of 50 Schools in MENASA region. In addition, he sat on the board of two schools.

Prior to GEMS he was with the Emirates Group for nearly 15 years in two stints and his last role was Head of Global Technology Partnerships where he led a portfolio of over 450 vendor relations and program managed large scale collaboration projects with tech partners. His preceding role was Head of Customer Experience for dnata (Emirates Group) where he set up the line and managed the business technology, product, pricing and customer service functions across the network.

Mayank is a sought-after keynote speaker, author and moderator on EdTech subjects. He has spoken at prominent international conferences and his articles have appeared in leading publications. He has also been an active mentor for several talent management pools.

Mayank is a certified Yoga teacher as well and the founder of a non-profit entity – Yogasmriti; which combines individual and community wellbeing. All proceeds from the initiative are directed to charitable causes supporting children in need. Mayank’s philanthropic work has been recognised at regional and international forums.

Vikas Pota

Founder and CEO of T4 Education

Vikas Pota is the Founder and CEO of T4 Education, a digital media platform he established as a response to the challenges posed by the pandemic to education globally. T4 is building the world’s largest community of teachers and schools and is providing opportunities for educators to network, collaborate, share best practices, and support each other’s efforts to improve learning. T4 works to amplify teachers’ voices because the world in which every child receives a good education will only be built by listening to those at the heart of education. Vikas was previously CEO of a philanthropic foundation, has been recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and as one of London’s 1,000 most influential persons. Vikas was recently named European regional honouree for the 2022 YPO Global Impact Award.

Marin Maurette

Head of Prizes, T4 Education

Marin leads the prizes division at T4 Education. In this role, Marin oversees all prize initiatives, including both branded and bespoke offerings, particularly working and engaging with education communities from all over the world, to deliver impactful education programmes.

Prior to T4, she has spent most of her professional career working at the intersection of politics and education in Argentina. She has served as an advisor to the Minister of Education at the National Ministry of Education. Later, she transitioned to a role as a staffer in the Senate of Argentina's National Congress, where she furthered her interest in the international education agenda.

She has a degree in Political Science from the National Catholic University in Argentina and is based in Buenos Aires.

Brian K Schreuder

Retired Superintendent General & Specialist Advisor, South Africa

Brian Schreuder is a Specialist Education Advisor, International Judge of Education competitions and Mentor residing in South Africa. He is the former Superintendent General (Head of Department) for the Western Cape Education Department. He retired formally on 31 March 2021 after 47 years of dedicated service to education, but continued for another year as Specialist Adviser to the Western Cape Government.

He is an EdTech specialist who was responsible for the WCED e-Vision and the roll-out of e-Learning and e-Teaching in Western Cape schools, driving the Western Cape Government’s eLearning Game Changer. He was also responsible for the creation and rollout of the WCED Transform to Perform Strategy, a systems-wide strategy to improve values in all schools, change mindset for all teachers and growth mindsets amongst all learners. Previously as Deputy Director-General: Curriculum and Assessment Management he was responsible for all curriculum issues, Teacher Development and the e-Learning Strategy and all assessment issues. He is regarded as a specialist of national Examinations and Assessments and is a former High School Science Teacher.

He currently serves on the University Council of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and on the Standardisation Committee of the University of Stellenbosch's Unit for International Credentialing, responsible for quality assuring international high school qualifications.

Joseph Nsengimana

Director, African Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, Mastercard Foundation

Joseph is Director of the Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, based in Kigali Rwanda. The Centre aims to spark innovation and promote promising practices in the use of ICT for teaching and learning while catalyzing significant improvements in secondary education across Africa. Prior to joining the Mastercard Foundation, Joseph had a long and varied career at Intel Corporation.

His last role there was as Executive Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion (GDI) Policy, Strategy and External Partnerships (PSEP), responsible for helping Intel reach full representation in its US workforce in 2018, two years ahead of schedule. He crafted and led the implementation of Intel’s Africa public policy and corporate affairs strategy. He also led the team responsible for government affairs, education, ICT, and broadband policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Joseph has worked closely with the Ministries of Education and other stakeholders in using ICT to transform their education systems. Joseph also led Intel’s participation in the Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE).

Vongai Nyahunzvi

Head of Africa and Chief Network Officer at Teach For All

Vongai Nyahunzvi is Head of Africa and Chief Network Officer at Teach For All, a global network of independent organizations working to develop collective leadership to ensure all children can fulfill their potential. Vongai has held senior leadership positions across the corporate, government, and not-for-profit sectors for more than 20 years. She is known for her entrepreneurial approach and her passion for helping senior leaders think clearly, strategically, and practically.

Vongai has an extensive track record of building strong relationships, trust, and engagement at all levels. Prior to her current role, she was the Head of the Africa Region at Teach For All, where she oversaw the support and engagement with network partners in the region as well as the launch of new organizations in Africa. For eight years, Vongai ran her own leadership and organizational development practice, supporting senior leaders in organizations, including chief executives, heads of UN agencies, and managing directors, across four continents and multiple sectors. She has also held senior director-level positions in organizations including BT Global and Royal Holloway University in the United Kingdom.

Vongai is recognized as a thought leader on leadership development and has authored two books on the topic, Leading From Within — Shifting Perspectives on Leadership (2015) and Leadership Syndromes — Identifying the Self-sabotaging Behaviour Patterns that Can Derail Your Effectiveness as a Leader (2016). In 2016, she launched a monthly roundtable for CEOs across sectors to discuss leadership challenges at the C-suite level. She also founded the UK-based Europe Leadership Awards, which brought together senior leaders from around the world.

In addition to her role at Teach For All, Vongai sits on a number of Boards where she provides strategic input. Born and raised in a patriarchal society, she is passionate about ensuring that girls around the world can thrive. She is a proud mother of three boys and lives in Corby, United Kingdom.

Mercedes Miguel

Minister of Education, Buenos Aires City Government, Argentina

Mercedes Miguel is the Minister of Education of Buenos Aires City Government in Argentina. She also served as Undersecretary for Innovation and Education Quality at the National Ministry of Education of Argentina (2015-2019). Currently, she also serves on Nord Anglia Education's Advisory Board and has been also working at Argentina's River Plate Football Club's school, where she has led the design of a new educational model targeted at the club’s high-performance athletes (River DAR).

She studied Journalism in the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and took education courses in Harvard University, Singularity University, Schumacher College and recently at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. She also studied Education Information at the National University of Lanús in Argentina, and received a scholarship for New Technologies and Learning in Chile, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

Before taking on her role as Secretary, she was a teacher and since 2010 served in public administration as General Director of Education Planning and Innovation in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. In this position, she led the Teachers’ School creating a new vision based on innovative practices. Furthermore, she led the creation of the first Curriculum for Secondary Level School; she also oversaw the City’s Teacher Training School, introducing innovation in teaching practices, and policies focused on the student learning outcomes.

At the Secretariat of Innovation, she created the National School of Government for Education Policies to leave human capacity at provincial level, led the transformation of digital education, teacher training, the implementation of new framework for Secondary level schools, and the National Plan ‘Learning Mathematics’, towards improving Maths at National level.

She represented Argentina at the OECD Education Committee and was also a member of the Steering Committee at UNESCO 2030 for two periods. Furthermore, she was designated Chair of the Education Working Group during the Argentine Presidency for the G20 during 2018 leading both national and international agendas.

Dionisio Garza-Sada

Founder & CEO of Talisis, Mexico

Dionisio is the Founder & CEO of Talisis, a tech enabled learning services platform primarily focusing on professional degrees and talent development programs. Talisis operates mainly in Mexico and offers onsite, online, and hybrid courses and degree programs through its +160 learning centers in Mexico. Talisis offers an online platform with +20k courses that can generate a personalized curriculum for each individual learner.

Dionisio also serves as chair of Grupo Topaz, a fund with investments in education, finance, technology, energy, and real estate. He has an Undergraduate Degree in Management Science Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard. He serves on the board of several NGO and public and private companies.

Lia Glaz

Executive Director of Telefonica Vivo Foundation Brazil

She graduated in Public Administration from FGV-EAESP and a master's degree in Economic and Political Development from SIPA-Columbia University. At Fundação Telefônica Vivo, Lia has led the Education area, promoting innovative initiatives and the use of technology to support the development of children and teenagers in the context of the 21st century, including programs offered by the Foundation, research development and public policy strengthening processes. Before that, she worked for 15 years in social and multinational organizations in the areas of education, sports and healthy eating in Brazil, Canadá and Switzerland.

Vandana Goyal

Managing Trustee of Avanti Fellows, India

Vandana Goyal is currently the Managing Trustee of Avanti Fellows, an award-winning nonprofit based in India focused on putting low-income students on a path towards professional success through competitive test preparation and a focus on high quality STEM education in secondary government schools.

She was formerly CEO of The Akanksha Foundation. Under her leadership, Akanksha became one of the largest networks of public-private partnership schools in India, currently 21 schools serving over 9,300 students and 10,000 alumni. In 2012, Vandana was honored by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader.

Vandana serves on the Board of Directors of Avanti Fellows, Save the Children India and Kizazi (UK). She also serves on the advisory board of The Akanksha Foundation, The Education Alliance and the Investment Committee of the School Quality Excellence Program.

Vandana grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where her parents emigrated from India in 1978. She moved to Mumbai in 2006, and currently lives there with her husband and two childreen, Siena and Samar.

Lin Kobayashi

Co-Founder and Chair of the Board, UWC ISAK Japan

UWC ISAK Japan, which she founded, is one of the newest additions to the United World College movement and is a residential high school that opened in Karuizawa, Japan, in 2014 with the aim of developing transformational leaders who are eager to work for positive change. UWC ISAK brings together students from over 80 countries around the world and provides scholarships to 70% of the student body.

Lin began her career at Morgan Stanley and holds an MA in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University and a BA in Development Economics from the University of Tokyo. Lin was a Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University, and serves on the boards of International House of Japan as well as UWC International.

She was named “Change-Maker of the Year 2013” by Nikkei Business, “Woman of the Year 2015” by Nikkei Woman, “Management Award of the Year 2016” by Zaikai, "Entrepreneur of The Year 2019 Japan” by Ernst & Young, and "Impact Award 2023" by Harvard Business School of Japan.

Sungsup Ra

Deputy Director General and Deputy Chief, Sectors Group at Asian Development Bank, Philippines

As DDG & DC, Sungsup Ra, leads ADB-wide knowledge-based innovation, collaboration, and sovereign operations across all sectors.

DDG Ra has over 35 years of professional experience including more than 22 years in ADB. Previously, he served as the Chief Sector Officer of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department and the Director of the South Asia Human and Social Development Division, concurrently holding the position of Education Sector Group Chair.

Before joining ADB, he gained valuable experience working with public and private entities, including Samsung and the Korean National Pension. He also taught at leading universities such as International Christian University, Korea University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Sungsup Ra holds a Doctorate Degree in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States.