Teacher shares his prize money
AN INDIAN teacher was last Thursday (3) named the winner of a $1 million (£774,700) prize for his work transforming the lives of young girls in a rural village.
Ranjitsinh Disale was announced the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 at a virtual ceremony broadcast from the Natural History Museum in London and opted to split half his winnings with his fellow finalists.
A jubilant Disale heard the news at home in India, surrounded by his family.
He was selected from 12,000 nominations from over 140 countries around the world.
His decision means $55,000 will go to each of the other nine finalists from nations including Italy, Nigeria and South Korea.
Disale is the sixth winner of the award, which is sponsored by the UN’s educational and cultural agency UNESCO.
He said the coronavirus pandemic had shown the importance of education to communities. “In this hard time, teachers are giving their best to make sure every student has access to their birthright of a good education,” he said.
Disale added all teachers were “the real change-makers who are changing the lives of their students” and it was in this spirit he said he was sharing his winnings.
The teacher arrived at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in a small village near Solapur, in India’s Maharashtra state, in 2009.
The school was in a rundown building next to a cattle shed, according to organisers. School attendance was low and teenage marriage common.
The curriculum was not even in the girls’ main language. Disale learned the local language and translated the class text books.
He also introduced digital learning tools and came up with personalised programmes for each student. His system of QR Coded Textbooks is now used across India.
School attendance is now 100 per cent, and one girl from the village has graduated from university, the organisers said.
Disale also initiated environmental projects in the droughtprone district, while his “Let’s Cross the Borders” project connects young people from India and Pakistan, Palestine and Israel, Iraq and Iran, and the United States and North Korea to promote world peace.
Stefania Giannini, assistant director general for education at UNESCO, said teachers like Disale would build “more peaceful and just societies”.
“Teachers like Ranjitsinh will eliminate inequalities and drive economic growth,” she said.