Thirty-one year old, Ranjitsinh Disale, from India has emerged the winner of the One million US dollars 2020 Global Teacher prize.
Ranjitsinh , however has already given away half of the $1m prize, sharing it with runners-up in the competition.
His decision to split the prize will mean over £40,000 each for runners-up from countries including Italy, Brazil, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Korea, the US and also Jamie Frost from the UK.
A special Covid Hero prize was won by Jamie Frost, a UK teacher who ran a free Maths tuition website.
The winners were announced by Stephen Fry in an online ceremony.
Ranjitsinh, a primary school teacher from a village in Maharashtra won the prize in recognition of his efforts at promoting girls’ education and triggering a quick-response (QR) coded textbook revolution in India.
He took on the task of turning things around and ensuring that the textbooks were available in the local language for the pupils.
Disale not only translated the class textbooks into his pupils’ mother tongue, but also embedded them with unique QR codes to give students access to audio poems, video lectures, stories and assignments.
The impact of his interventions has been that there are now no teenage marriages in the village and 100 per cent attendance of girls at the school.
Founder of the Varkey Foundation, organiser of the Global Teacher Prize, Sunny Varkey said “by sharing the prize you teach the world the importance of giving.”
The Global Teacher Prize, which partners with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), shines a light on inspiring teachers in every corner of the planet.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
