In a system where many teachers reject postings to villages and remote communities, Abigail Agyeiwaa has taken a different path, choosing to spend more than a decade teaching children in underserved communities.

Her commitment to rural education has now earned her the title of Most Outstanding Teacher at the 2026 Ghana Teacher Prize.

The Mangoase SHS English teacher, who is also a former Cambridge Teacher of the Year, has been rewarded with a three-bedroom house valued at GH₵700,000.

Agyeiwaa said she did not wait to be posted to a rural community and that she personally requested one when she started her teaching career.

She recalled going to the education office in Akuapem North to ask for a posting to a village instead of the city.

“Wherever you are posted to, just go. I remember when I had my postings, I personally went to the education office at Akuapem North and I said I wanted protocol, not to be posted to the city but to be posted to a village,” she said.

She said her decision and request surprised the officer, who asked her why she would prefer to teach in the village instead of the city.

“The man was like, ‘why does a beautiful woman like me want to go to the village? As for village protocol, it is free, so you can go.’ From my first school, I moved deeper, to a deeper village,” she recalled.

She believes children should not receive a poorer education simply because they live in rural communities.

According to her, many of these children have no choice about where they live and deserve teachers who are willing to serve them.

“I know that the learners in the rural communities, they are there, not by choice. They are there as, let me say, victims of circumstances, and where they are shouldn't define the kind of teachers they should have, the kind of education they should have,” she stated.

“Where they are, regardless, should place them and give them the privileges that any other learner from any other part of the country has,” Agyeiwaa added.

Abigail had earlier been named the Sub-Saharan African regional winner of the 2026 Cambridge Dedicated Teacher Awards, becoming one of several Ghanaian teachers who have received the award.