Dubai: GEMS Education founder and chairman Sunny Varkey yesterday pledged more than half of his wealth to charity to help support teachers across the world.

The billionaire is joining the Giving Pledge initiative founded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to help address society’s most pressing problems.

The initiative invites the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropic or charitable causes.

According to the latest Forbes ranking, Varkey has an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion (Dh7.07 billion).

The founder of the one million dollar global teacher prize will join 136 billionaire individuals and couples who have signed the pledge. These include Mark Zuckerberg, co founder, chairman and chief executive of Facebook; Richard Branson, chairman and founder of Virgin Group; and Ted Turner, founder of CNN.

“I am delighted to sign the Giving Pledge. I was fortunate that I grew up in a family where charity was ingrained in us from a very early age. Even when my father earned a small amount, a large portion was shared with the community we lived in, sometimes at the cost of our own comfort,” said Varkey in a statement yesterday.

“Fifteen years on from the Millennium Development Goals, huge global education challenges remain unmet. Around 250 million children of primary school age cannot read and write and, at current rates of progress, it will take until 2072 to eradicate youth illiteracy.

“New 2030 targets on education are being drawn up and I hope governments around the world will sign up to them. But the hard truth is that without a rapid deployment of major resources, we won’t make a real difference to the lives of the millions of children that cannot access a good quality teacher and a good quality education.

“This is the greatest challenge of our time by which we will be judged by future generations. Time is running out for so many that could contribute so much.”

Last year the Varkey Foundation launched the Global Teacher Prize. Widely referred to as the Nobel Prize for teaching, the $1 million award is the largest prize of its kind. It was set up to recognise one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society. By unearthing thousands of stories of heroes that have transformed young people’s lives, the prize hopes to bring to life the exceptional work of millions of teachers all over the world.