Eduardo Perez, a Colombian educator, has been named Latin America and Caribbean Teacher of the Year by the University of Cambridge as part of the 2025 Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards.
This award recognizes the commitment of the teacher from Guaimaral Technical Institute in Cúcuta to inclusive education and the development of adaptive technologies for students with disabilities.
For Perez, this recognition is renewed motivation to continue working toward truly inclusive education. “True inclusion doesn’t start by focusing on limitations, but by embracing the possibilities within each person,” the teacher stated.
His work not only transforms lives in his community but also inspires educators worldwide to adopt more inclusive and technological approaches to teaching.
Colombian advocate for inclusion named Latin America’s Teacher of the Year
With 18 years of teaching experience, Eduardo Perez has spent the last seven years transforming learning for students with disabilities at his institution, where more than 250 students have various conditions.
Through his project Lancers of Inclusion, Eduardo Perez has developed more than 30 technological tools, including educational software for learning sign language, a geometry app for children with visual impairments, and a video game that teaches how to prevent digital risks such as cyberbullying and sexting.
Perez was nominated for the Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards by his student Carla Castaño, who highlighted how his digital tools have enabled her to “learn without barriers.”
“When you have a child with a disability, you need to wrap them in support, embrace them, take them by the hand. You need to be more than a teacher: a tutor, a guide,” Perez told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.
After several awards, Colombia’s Eduardo Perez competes to be the best teacher in the world
This recognition as Latin America’s Best Teacher by the University of Cambridge is not the first honor for Eduardo Pérez, a mathematics teacher in Cucuta, the capital of Colombia’s Norte de Santander department.
In 2021, Pérez was a finalist for the Global Teacher Prize, and in 2020 he received the Emir Jaber al Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah Prize, awarded by UNESCO for his work developing technology-based educational resources for people with visual and hearing disabilities.
In 2019, he earned the Microsoft Global Educators Challenge Award at the Education Exchange in France, as well as the Constructores de País Colombia 2020 Award, presented by El Espectador newspaper in partnership with the European Union, UNDP, UNHCR, and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.
A year earlier, he was named Best Teacher in Ibero-America by the FIDA Foundation, and in 2017 he received the “Good Practices in the Incorporation of Technologies” Award from the Organization of Ibero-American States in Mexico.
Now, selected from over 5,000 nominations across 101 countries, Perez is one of nine finalists competing for the title of World’s Best Teacher, representing Latin America alongside educators from East Asia, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and other regions.
The global winner will be announced in late June 2025. The recognition includes a certificate, a trophy, £500 worth of books for the classroom, and inclusion in a new Cambridge University Press book series launching in November 2025.
Related: Top University Rector Restrepo Assesses Future of Education in Colombia.