|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
An innovative east Auckland schoolteacher is among the finalists in this year’s Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
Subash Chandar K, a mathematics teacher at Ormiston Junior College in Flat Bush, is one of three finalists in the Local Hero of the Year category.
He’s up against domestic violence survivor advocate Kahira-Rata Olley MNZM and Tāme Iti, a high-profile champion for Māori rights.
The awards citation states Chandar K, known online as ‘infinityplusone’, is a “game-changing educator who’s made a significant impact on students across Aotearoa, creating a popular YouTube channel that provides free, detailed tutorials covering NCEA mathematics”.
He says he wasn’t expecting to be among the finalists in the running for Local Hero of the Year.
“Now I’m at this stage in the finals and I’m standing with a couple of giants in their fields.”
Chandar K has made about 1500 videos for his YouTube channel, which has almost 60,000 subscribers.
“I started making videos for my maths class in 2013,” he told the Times.
“I put them on YouTube and it crept around other maths classes.
“In 2017 I trialled a livestream for maths exams and about 600 students jumped online.
“I was like, ‘what’s happening here?’ Ever since then I’ve been creating content for any student who’s studying NCEA Level 1, 2, or 3.
“They’ve got skill videos they can watch and then there’s exam walk-throughs, so I tell them what they need to do for achieved, merit and excellence [grades].
“Then during the livestreams kids will send me questions. There’s no charge for any of these things and any child in New Zealand and around the globe can access my videos.”
For the first five to six years of his channel’s operation he didn’t have his face visible to viewers.
During the Covid-19 pandemic that changed and his young viewers began recognising him in public.
They suggested he get some merchandise made so he came up with a T-shirt featuring his channel’s logo.
“I do giveaways for the kids and send them to them for free,” he says.
“When I hear kids want shirts with my logo it’s pretty cool.
“Last year I presented to about 12 or 13 schools and gave talks about goal setting and persevering in maths and I took shirts as giveaways. They love it.
“Kids have also been getting their calculators signed by me. I didn’t expect that as a maths teacher.”
He says he’s grateful to Casio for supplying him with calculators to give away and he’s extremely grateful to his wife, Luckshmy Chandar K.
“I have a massive support system at home with my wife. She knows how much it means for me to help the kids and how they keep me going.
“She sees it’s beneficial for both as if I help the kids it keeps me in a good spirit, and she’s incredibly supportive looking after things at home while I get to do this thing.”
Chandar K was also recently named a finalist for the $1 million GEMS Education Global Teacher Prize, a Varkey Foundation initiative organised in collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
He was selected from more than 5000 nominations and applications from 89 countries.
Now in its ninth year, the $1m Global Teacher Prize is the largest prize of its kind and was won by a teacher in Saudi Arabia.
It was set up to recognise an exceptional teacher who’s made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society.
Winners of the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards will be announced at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland on March 20.
