When we talk about integrity in education, we talk about real people and their approach to teaching. This is the story of teacher Tetiana Hlebova, winner of the “Teacher of Integrity” nomination at the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2026.
The nomination was launched this year by the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative together with Global Teacher Prize Ukraine and Osvitoria, and Tetiana Hlebova became its very first laureate.
Tetiana Hlebova is a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature, as well as foreign literature, with 28 years of teaching experience. For 20 years, she worked at a boarding school for children with special educational needs. In 2022, she survived the siege of Mariupol and left her hometown on foot together with her son.
Today, Tetiana works at two schools simultaneously: in person at Zaporizhzhia Lyceum №23 and remotely at Mariupol School №29 with her students scattered across different cities and countries. Some of them are studying the Ukrainian language even though they live in Russian-occupied territory. At the same time, she leads the Zaporizhzhia Integrity Hub and, for three years in a row, has been part of regional groups developing reference knowledge cards to help children recover.
“Once, after I had checked a batch of essays, a student came up to me and quietly said: ‘I found a ready text on the internet, but I couldn’t bring myself to submit it. I realized I wanted to write it myself.’ That was the moment I felt: a lesson of integrity had taken place,”
Tetiana Hlebova shared.
For Tetiana, integrity is part of her daily work. She treats each student equally, explains every grade she gives, and is always ready to acknowledge her own mistakes in front of the class. She has a firm conviction that a school becomes a place of integrity only when everyone lives by shared values — students, teachers, parents, and administration alike.
This year, Tetiana received three awards of the Prize: “Teacher of Integrity,” “Inclusivity,” and “Choice of the Heart.” As the winner of the “Teacher of Integrity” nomination, she will travel to Denmark on an educational trip organized by the EUACI.
