Nomination reasons
A primary school learner in her outreach programme, Shannon Rossouw, nominated Vandayar. She credits her A+ marks to Vandayar's voluntary after-hours tutoring and details how the teacher's great care extends to helping children who can't afford stationery and uniforms.
One of his learners, Abulele Jali, who returned to high school at twenty years of age after a self-destructive hiatus to try to gain an improved Matric result in the deeply rural Nkandla school nominated Ntuli. Two years ago, Ntuli insisted that Abulele enter the school at Grade 10 and then encouraged him ceaselessly work his way thoroughly towards a better Matric. With success now on Abulele's horizon, he credits Ntuli with motivating learners to withstand the hardships of rural deprivation and fight for their brighter future through education.
Tshepiso Maema nominated Malatji and said she is such a good teacher she makes him feel like a 'genius learner'. She actively promotes healthy eating at her school and inspires learners to be the best they can be.
In the first stage, a panel of independent judges selected four finalists in each of the primary and high school categories based on the learners' submissions. The eight teacher finalists each won a laptop and a R1,000 Woolworths Giftcard and then attended a meet and greet event with the judges and an external auditor in Cape Town to determine the top three winners. The eight nominating learners each received a R5,000 Woolworths Giftcard, while their schools were each awarded a R5,000 cash prize.
As the overall competition winner, Vandayar received an additional Woolworths Giftcard to the value of R50,000, while the teachers in 2nd and 3rd place were awarded Woolworths Giftcards to the value of R20,000 and R10,000 respectively.
