$1m Global Teacher Prize winner Sister Zeph believes teaching is not a profession but a passion

The first video interview I schedule with Sister Zeph fails to materialise due to a tech issue at my end. A few minutes into the second one I schedule, the audio turns patchy and the connection fails.

Even as I am wondering what to do, a Whatsapp message from Sister Zeph pings informing me that there is a power cut in her area due to which the wifi is down. ‘I’ve managed to get a hotspot though, so now it should be fine,’ she says. A couple of minutes later and we are connected.

I have been looking forward to speaking with Sister Zeph– the 2023 winner of the $1million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, organised in collaboration with Unesco and in partnership with Dubai Cares. British actor and writer Stephen Fry announced Sister Zeph as the winner of the prestigious prize at a ceremony which he hosted from Unesco’s headquarters in Paris as a key part of its 42nd session general conference earlier this month. Sister Zeph was selected from over 7,000 nominations from 130 countries.

A teacher in Gujranwala, in Pakistan, Sister Zeph was barely 13 years old when she founded a school in the courtyard of her home to teach children whose parents could not afford to pay fees for their studies. (She herself dropped out of school at a tender age after a teacher rebuked her severely, hurting the little one’s pride and self-respect. But about that later.)

Hailing from an impoverished family, Sister Zeph worked eight hours a day to fund the school, then returned to teach the students for about four hours before staying up late into the night to teach herself. She remembers going along with her mother– ‘she was a strong woman’– from home to home in her village requesting parents to send their daughters to her small school so she could share her knowledge with them.

Today, 26 years later, the school has grown into a standalone two-storey building, thanks to Sister Zeph’s hard work and vision, not to mention help from well-wishers across the globe, and provides education to more than 200 underprivileged children in and around her village in Gujranwala. More than 3,000 students have gained an education and have gone on to script their own success stories.

But that is just one part of the immensely valuable work she is doing.

Apart from managing– and teaching at– the school, Sister Zeph’s initiative runs self-defence classes for girls, provides financial assistance to families choosing between educating their children and paying their bills, and runs a vocational training centre that has helped more than 6,000 women gain skills in ICT, fashion designing, and sewing, among others.

MULTIPLE-AWARD WINNING TEACHER

Earlier, her praiseworthy work earned her the $20,000 Lynn Syms Global Prize from World Pulse, which led to the production of the documentary film Flight of the Falcons that bagged a Gold Medal at the New York Film Festival in 2016.

‘I want to devote my life to transform the darkness of ignorance into the light of literacy and awareness,’ she said, and that is clearly what she is busy doing more than 18 hours every day, for the past two and half decades.

The multiple award-winning teacher recalls how her parents lacked the financial resources to give their four daughters a good education. Her father was bed-ridden for a long time following an accident and her mother worked as a labourer to raise her children. But even as a little girl, Sister Zeph had a passion for learning and sharing knowledge with others her age. ‘I had to work as a child labourer [to supplement the family income], but once I returned home from work I’d learn what I could on my own,’ she says, in an exclusive interview to Friday.

Quitting school when she was in grade 7 after she was ‘severely humiliated by my teacher whose words hurt my soul, mind and heart’, she promised never to return but instead start ‘my own school where children would be respected and taught with love and compassion’.

Initially, Sister Zeph’s school for children was just the courtyard in front of her home where kids would sit on the floor as there were no chairs or tables.

‘During winters, children would snuggle up next to each other to keep themselves warm; in summer, we’d crowd in the shade of the roof’s overhang,’ she recalls. ‘If it rained, we’d have to take the day off because the courtyard was open to the skies.’

Although conditions were pitiable, Sister Zeph refused to give up. If anything, it only inspired her to keep doing more for her students.

‘Why?’ she repeats my question. ‘Because despite such poor conditions, the students did not give up. They enjoyed coming to school to learn. I suppose one of the reasons was because I would encourage them to ask questions about just anything that they wanted to know.’

In Sister Zeph’s book of teaching, that is one of the first chapters: Encourage students to ask questions and to think on their own.

She admits that students often asked her questions that left her stumped. ‘They’d ask questions like how many stars are there in the sky? Or who invented the computer?, she says, with a smile. ‘I, of course, did not have answers to all of their questions but I would make it a point to find out by reading newspapers and books and, later, searching on the internet.’

She also saved up some of the money she earned to buy books so that she could read and later share the books– and the knowledge she gained from them– with her students.

‘The other thing I would do is give them a lot of love and affection,’ she says. ‘I think I was probably the only person who would hug them, and love and shower them with affection. I’d eat with them, talk to them, answer their questions...

‘This was something amazing for the children because underprivileged children, you know, have very little to look forward to in their own homes. There is always the fear of mental and physical violence.’ The empathy in Sister Zeph’s voice is evident.

The changemaker underscores that one thing she realised over the years is that ‘often, it is not money, comforts or luxuries that children need to be happy. A look of admiration, a gesture to make them feel wanted and important; respect and love, and a person who would willingly spend time with them – these are enough to make them happy’.

Sister Zeph, who is the Founder and CEO of the Zephaniah Women Education and Empowerment Foundation, and CEO of Evaz Ethical, a clothing brand, has also been able to empower many young women offering them formal education and skills training so they can set up their own businesses.

A DOUBLE MASTER’S DEGREE

The Pakistani teacher has not just been teaching; she has also been learning, acquiring two Master’s degrees– in political science and in history– and is currently pursuing a degree in education. ‘How did I do it?’ she repeats my question again. ‘Since 2008, Google has been my teacher. Today, if I have any questions, I ask Google.

‘I have also learnt where and how to find the right knowledge that I need, how to compare different pieces of information and arrive at the truth, and how to determine what information is right and what is not,’ says the alumnus of the Swedish Institute of Sweden, and half a dozen other organisations where she has either completed courses or attended workshops and presented papers.

Extremely optimistic and with a never-say-die attitude, the co-author of three popular self-help books believes in talking about and spreading positivity. ‘I work with the positivity, peace and [the desire to] transform and empower women,’ she says, enthusiastically.

Her definition of women empowerment is one that ensures no child remains hungry. ‘That happens if women are empowered.’

An empowered woman will do her best to pass it on to children, she says. ‘Whenever you meet an extraordinary child you will find that their mother was very strong.

‘My mother was not educated, but she is very strong. Even when she was going through extremely difficult times she would always say ‘my daughters will never become domestic workers’. She wanted for her four daughters to get a good education and become successful in life.

Sister Zeph is sure peace will reign if women are empowered. ‘Why? Because when women are empowered, there is no physical and mental violence in families. Children grow with peace, with positivity, and with full tummies. Such women will ensure children get an education and nobody neglects them. That means no child has to experience child labour… that means every child has a childhood.’

The former ambassador for the World Literacy Foundation of Australia reflects for a moment on her own childhood. ‘I did not have a good childhood; I don’t want any child to have the kind of childhood I had.’

The single woman is happy that today she is able to give hundreds of children the opportunity for a better life. ‘I’m glad for that. I believe children should play with toys, be raised in a loving atmosphere, not have to listen to harsh voices, or go to work. They’re… they’re like rose petals, really, and the world should treat them like that.’

I realised that if girls have an education, if women are skilled, they can face any problem. They will not have to depend on others because when we depend on others, our life becomes tough. It was that realization that led me to teach women vocational skills so they could be independent

- Sister Zeph

Determined to ensure that the fundamental rights of children and women ‘to have good health, to have a good diet, to have a good education, to know themselves’ are protected, she underscores the importance of educating the girl child. ‘I realised that if girls have an education, if women are skilled, they can face any problem. They will not have to depend on others because when we depend on others, our life becomes tough. It was that realization that led me to teach women vocational skills so they could be independent,’ she says.

Sister Zeph knows the value of education. ‘As my education was growing, I found I was getting better jobs,’ says the teacher who has worked in various positions in the telecom and other sectors in Pakistan.

If Sister Zeph began her school with just herself as a teacher in 1997, today 26 years later, she has 30 employees in her organisation – some 25 of them students who she taught and who have completed either their bachelor’s or masters and degree. They earn well and are able to support themselves, their families and are working towards getting a higher education.

She used the prize money of $20,000 she received from World Pulse to buy a plot of land and construct a two-storey building where she offers women the opportunity to pick up vocational skills.

Those who have graduated from her organisation have gone on to become artists, photographers, videographers, beauty salon and small business owners, teachers, nurses, and tailors.

Sister Zeph can reel off any number of success stories of her students. ‘One student of mine learnt sewing from my school and was keen to pursue a course in fashion designing. So, I paid the fees for her to study the course in the city and the rent for her stay there. After completing her training in fashion designing, she helped me launch our own clothing line which now provides jobs for several women,’ she says proudly.

What does she enjoy most about her role in life?

‘Transformation,’ she says. ‘Every time I transform a life, I am encouraged to do more. It’s like I’m addicted to changing lives for the better. I’m addicted to saving children from child labour, from violence, from child marriage.’

Seeing children working in workshops, being spoken harshly to, earning barely a few rupees every day, remaining malnourished, and toiling hard when they should be laughing, playing and studying in schools pushes her to do more for the underprivileged.

‘For the past 17 years, I have dedicated myself to working within a larger organisation the Zephaniah Education and Empowerment Foundation,’ she says. Students from more than 10 villages in the neighbourhood attend the two schools and skills center run by the Foundation.

Formal education is provided to girls until 12th grade and boys until 5th grade. Apart from formal education, the 15 full time teachers offer students lessons in self-defense techniques, the English language, IT courses, beautician courses, stitching and sewing, financial management, health education, sports and arts. Many teachers from Europe, USA and other countries teach various courses via Skype.

OVERWHELMED

What were her thoughts when she was won the Global Teacher Award?

‘I was overwhelmed,’ she says. ‘I did not know what to say or do. I really did not know how to react.’

Even as the interview is coming to and end, I can hear excited voices in the background, and faint notes of music. ‘The team in school has arranged a party for me for having won the award,’ she explains. ‘They are actually waiting for me to finish the interview and join in the celebrations.’

Notes and congratulatory messages are flooding in from well-wishers in Pakistan and from around the world, she says. ‘Everybody is excited because of this award. It is the biggest award in education and it has come for the first time to Pakistan. The country is enjoying, my family, teachers, and students are enjoying.’

What is her dream now? I ask.

‘To have a school in a 10-acre plot of land where I can teach at least 2,000 students,’ she says. ‘I would like to give students who are extremely poor an opportunity to get an education, learn life and vocational skills so that they can become global citizens. I want them to learn about all the cultures and different ethnicities. I am sure if I can get a plot of land quickly, I will be able to make this dream come true. It will happen. If not now, maybe in two or three years time, but I will have my dream school.’