Malaysian Teacher Wins 2024 Global Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Award

  The International Education group at Cambridge University Press & Assessment (Cambridge) announced that Sydney Engelbert, an English language teacher at Keningau Vocational College, Sabah, Malaysia, is the global winner of the 2024 Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards

The achievement came as a surprise to Sydney when she was attending Malaysia’s Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards on 23 May. She took to the stage to receive her trophy for winning the Southeast Asia & Pacific regional award in the competition—only regional winners are put through to the public overall vote—and learned that she had also won the global vote.

Kanjna Paranthaman, Cambridge’s Regional Director for Southeast Asia & Pacific, said: “Huge congratulations to Sydney. She is a well-deserved winner for her work in expanding the international experience of students without them leaving the classroom. At Cambridge, we believe that the role of a school is not only to pursue academic excellence but also to motivate and empower students to be lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and productive global citizens with values and ethics. Sydney’s programme aligns perfectly with this as a teaching approach.”

Now in its sixth year, the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards gives students, parents and peers the chance to nominate a current primary or secondary teacher for outstanding commitment to their students’ education. The 2024 Awards saw a record number of nominations from people wanting to thank a teacher: 14,840 nominations across 141 different countries, topping the previous record by over 1,000 nominations.