The Global Teacher Prize is run by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO which aims to highlight the significance of educators and their honour worthy contributions to the world. They believe that education has the power to alleviate poverty, prejudice, and conflict.
Teachers work tirelessly to impart education thus playing the most crucial part in transforming the world and building a bright global future. In light of this, the Global Teacher Award makes a real difference to the profession.
Ranjitsinh Disale, a diligent teacher at Zilla Parishad Primary School in the village of Paritewadi, Solapur district, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, is the winner of the Global Teacher Prize, out of more than 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries around the world. He created history not by winning this auspicious and noble award, but by deciding to share half of that number, that is, Rupees 7.4 crore, with the rest nine finalists in support of the “incredible work” of the “change-makers”.
Works: He has translated textbooks into the local language to help children study in their mother tongue. He was the first to introduce QR codes in his school textbooks so that the children can get links to audio poems, video lectures, assignments and stories, and submitted a proposal and a successful pilot scheme for the same. He has worked to spread awareness on the ills of teenage marriages and the importance of education for girls. He also works towards building peace between young people across conflict zones by connecting young people from India and Pakistan, Palestine and Israel, Iraq and Iran, and the US and North Korea through a ‘Let’s Cross the Borders’ project. He also built a science lab at his home; well-known for demonstrating scientific experiments. He takes students with depleted resources from schools around the world on virtual field trips on his weekends, using the Microsoft Educator Community platform.
His other awards include the Innovative Researcher of the Year 2016 award, the National Innovation Foundation’s Innovator of the Year 2018. His work was mentioned in Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s book ‘Hit Refresh’.
He received wishes from Dalai Lama, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and others.
The Dalai Lama said that Disale set an example of “compassion in action”.
“What an inspiring story from India! Top teacher wins $1m and gives half away,” Shashi Tharoor tweeted.
Image Source: Global Teachers Source
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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