BIC Rewards Ddungu Ronald

Ronald Ddungu wins the prestigious 2020 BIC Cristal Pen Award

BIC, a world leader in Stationery, Lighters, and Shavers, announced the winners of its ‘BIC Cristal Pen Awards 2020’. Recognized among the 10 most impactful educators around the world, Ronald Ddungu, former Deputy Headteacher and a teacher of Gayaza High School for more than 20 years was selected as the winner from Uganda for his exceptional contribution towards his students and for being a beacon of hope and optimism in an academically exigent year.   Mr Ddungu now works with VVOB – Uganda, building capacity of lecturers in the National teachers colleges to teach agriculture practically.

According to the statement released by BIC: Globally, the education system has been witnessing a sea-change due to the altering socio-economic landscape triggered by the ongoing pandemic. Through this, teachers have been the crucial connector between students and their schools, going beyond their call of duty to ensure their students continue to find joy in the new methods of learning. In effort to recognize and honor the valuable contributions of teachers during these unprecedented times, BIC introduced the first edition of its BIC Cristal Pen Awards. Launched in conjunction with the company’s Global Education Week initiative, the award aims to celebrate exceptional educators around the world who inspire and bring joy to children every day while equipping them towards a more empowered future. The nominations of the educators came from BIC employees from around the group and the winners included 10 winners from the US, Australia, India, Uganda, Ethiopia, Brazil, Greece and Turkey.

Ronald Ddungu is an entrepreneurship advocate as he recognizes it as a key driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth. He also recognizes the challenges that schools face in delivering entrepreneurial focused programs. Building on his years of experience, Mr. Ddungu has helped transform school’s curriculum to integrate agriculture entrepreneurship and mentor fellow educators on teaching practical agriculture methods through their various subjects; mathematics, English, Science and others. He also started the FARM CAMP, an annual event that brings students and teachers together to improve their agricultural enterprise skills and connect them with farmers and experts to learn more about business. This event engages teachers from different subjects to help them design lesson plans that make use of the farm units and all the related activities.

The BIC Cristal Awards prize included a grant of 5,000 EUR and a BIC Stationery product donation towards the school in addition to a custom-designed trophy from Tiffany’s &Co.

Commenting on the new award, Michael Sinclair, General Manager, BIC East Africa said, “To invest in our future, we must invest in our children. This is a core tenet to BIC’s philosophy of improving lives through education. As a company our vision is to improve learning conditions for 250 million children worldwide by 2025. The BIC Cristal Pen Awards was conceptualized in essence to not just help students, but to also celebrate devoted educators whose resilience, expertise, and contribution in their field often goes unnoticed. For educators, the pandemic has been both an adaptive and transformative experience which had no organized playbook.  This award is a recognition of their adaptability in the face of the unforeseen education challenge and protecting their student’s learning opportunities. We would like to congratulate Mr. Ddungu for his exceptional contribution towards the school and his students and hope this grant can help him along in his mission towards improving more young lives.”

 The Group aims to help children succeed in their education by providing improved learning conditions and in-school infrastructure. In support of this mission and given the constraints on in-person volunteering due to COVID-19, BIC created the BIC Cristal Pen Awards program as part of its annual Global Education Week. Whether classes are virtual, in-person or both, the awards aim to acknowledge the extraordinary work done by 10 educators globally through an open nomination programme.

We congratulate Mr. Ddungu for this achievement and his continued effort in mentoring teachers at Gayaza High School and across the country to make education more engaging.