Stars in Education Awards

Celebrating 5 years of recognising inspiring teachers in 2012

The Stars in Education Awards is proof of how most inspiring stories often have their origin in seemingly dismal situations and events.  The campaign was started in response to the negative image of teachers in the media during the 2007 Teacher’s strike. Whilst the impact of the strike action can be debated, the consequence of the strike was a lack of respect for ordinary teachers.

“Our work with teachers and education officials told a different story to the media image – we were meeting ordinary teachers and overworked education officials, who often went beyond the call of duty in challenging environments to support learners.” These teachers were embarrassed to tell others that they were teachers, and felt ashamed to be associated with the teachers portrayed in the media. This gave us a very different view of teachers.

The Argo team saw teachers who changed the lives of learners, and positively impacted their communities and acted as role models for others. We believed in the work of these teachers and wanted to recognise these stars in our communities, by launching the Stars in Education Awards, the only non-curricula project to recognise the inspirational role that teachers play in our lives. Each of us can recall a teacher who made a difference in our lives, and this difference had little to do with the content that was delivered in the classroom – it was about a teacher’s ability to inspire us to believe in ourselves and become who we were meant to be.

The Stars in Education awards celebrates its fifth year in 2012! It is sponsored by Transnet Foundation, Mindset Learn, Macmillan, Cell C, The Star, MetroFM and Argo.