A primary school teacher from a remote village in Maharashtra has won the Global Teacher Prize 2020, in recognition of his efforts at promoting girls’ education and pioneering education through quick response (QR) coded textbooks.
Ranjitsinh Disale, the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020. @ranjitdisale. You can watch the whole ceremony here: https://t.co/eT9lTYIsgt #GTP2020 #globalteacherprize #TeachersMatter #India pic.twitter.com/0uWLPcky2H
— Global Teacher Prize (@TeacherPrize) December 3, 2020
32-year-old Ranjitsinh Disale, a resident of Paritewadi village in Solapur district, did not just register his name in the top 10 finalists but also won the prize which also included monetary reward of one million US dollars.
Ranjitsinh emerged as a winner out of 12,000 teachers who were nominated from 140 countries across the world.
On winning the title, Disale announced that he will share fifty per cent of the total prize money with the other 9 finalists, which will ensure the provision of quality education to thousands of children in those finalists’ countries as well.
According to a report by The Hindu, Disale had taken it upon himself to turn things around using both the available resources and technology. In one of his initiatives, he 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.
‘Teachers are the real change-makers who are changing the lives of their students with a mixture of chalk and challenges. They always believe in giving and sharing. And, therefore, I am very pleased to announce that I will share 50% 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,’ he said.
Disale’s school went on to become the first in the state 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. Later, in 2018, the Human Resources Development Ministry announced that all the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks would have embedded QR codes.
Ranjitsinh persistently worked towards educating the girls and the impact of his efforts has been that there were no teenage marriages in the village and a record 100 per cent attendance of girls at school.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari also congratulated the teacher for this achievement.
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