India teacher wins $1mn Global Teacher Prize 2020

Making history, a primary school teacher from a Maharashtra village was named winner of the coveted $1 million annual Global Teacher Prize 2020 in recognition of his efforts to promote girls’ education and triggering a quick-response (QR) coded textbook revolution in India.

Ranjitsinh Disale, 32, from Paritewadi village in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, won among nominations submitted by 12,000 teachers from across 140 countries.

Disale, who believes teachers are the world’s “real changemakers”, also announced sharing 50 per cent of his prize money with the 9 fellow finalists to help scale their “incredible work”.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed education and the communities it serves in a multitude of ways. But, in this hard time, teachers are giving their best to make sure every student has access to their birthright of a good education. Teachers are the real changemakers who are changing the lives of their students… They always believe in giving and sharing. Therefore, I am very pleased to announce that I will share 50 per cent of the prize money equally among my fellow top 10 finalists to support their incredible work. I believe, together, we can change this world because sharing is growing,” Disale said.

The annual prize was founded by the Varkey Foundation in 2014 to recognise an exceptional teacher who has made outstanding contribution to the profession.

“By sharing the prize money, you teach the world the importance of giving… I now encourage you to use this platform to give all teachers a voice,” said philanthropist Sunny Varkey, the founder of the prize.

In another first, the Global Teacher Prize 2020 winner’s announcement was made at a virtual ceremony, broadcast from the Natural History Museum in London by British actor-broadcaster Stephen Fry.

“Teachers like Ranjitsinh will stop climate change and build more peaceful and just societies. Teachers like Ranjitsinh will eliminate inequalities and drive forward economic growth. Teachers like Ranjitsinh will save our future,” said Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director General for Education at UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), a partner of the initiative.

Ranjitsinh Disale’s work:

When Disale arrived at the Zilla Parishad Primary School at Paritewadi in Solapur in 2009, it was a dilapidated building between a cattleshed and a storeroom.

He took on the task of turning things around and ensuring the textbooks were available for students in the local language. He translated the class textbooks and embedded them with unique QR codes to give students access to audio poems, video lectures, stories and assignments.

Impact:

Disale’s interventions led to no reported teenage marriages in the village and 100% attendance of girls at the school. Disale’s school became the first in Maharashtra to introduce QR codes and after submitting a proposal and successful pilot scheme, the State Ministry announced in 2017 that they would introduce QR coded textbooks across the state for all grades.

In 2018, the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development announced that all the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks would have embedded QR codes.