A Kenyan teacher from a remote village who gave away most of his earnings to poor students has won a highly competitive $1 million global prize that honours one exceptional educator a year.

Peter Tabichi is a science teacher who gives away 80 per cent of his income to help the poor in the remote village of Pwani where almost a third of children are orphans or have only one parent, and where droughts and famine are frequent.

He was selected out of some 10,000 applicants and awarded the Global Teacher Prize on Sunday during a ceremony in Dubai hosted by actor Hugh Jackman.

He's the first African and male teacher to win the prize, which is awarded by the Varkey Foundation, whose founder established the for-profit GEMS Education company.