Inspiring! Solapur's Ranjitsinh Disale wins Global Teacher Prize 2020

Mumbai, December 04: In a very proud moment for India global Teacher prize has been awarded to a 32-year-old teacher named Ranjitsinh Disale for his work to promote girls education. The announcement was made by actor and writer Stephen Fry at a virtual ceremony broadcast from the Natural History Museum in London. He won prize money of 1 million USD, but, he is sharing it with the nine other finalists.

 

 

 

“A teacher always shares his knowledge and ideas with the students. I received the award for the work I did for teachers, students and for the field of education .So if I share 50 percent of the prize money with other finalist teachers, it would help them do what they want to do in their countries,” he mentioned in response to a query about why he determined to share the money prize.

 

He further added, “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. There is not a moment to lose as it will fall on young people to find solutions to problems that their parents and grandparents have lacked the will to solve, including climate change, conflict, and global pandemics.”

 

Disale is a teacher at Zilla Parishad Primary School in Paritewadi in Solapur. He started his teaching form 2009. The school was located between a storeroom and cattle shed where he observed that most of the female students in the class hailed from tribal communities and their education was not taken seriously due to the girl child marriage. He also noticed that curriculum was not even in the main language - Kannada. Due to which, it severely affected them to learn the subjects.

 

 

 

This is where Disale took upon the challenge and tried to re-design the books from Standard from 1st to 4th so that students can comprehend the subject better. He not only translated the books but he also embedded them with unique QR codes to give students access to audio poems, video lectures, stories, and assignments. The innovation, on his part, helped his students develop problem-solving skills, creativity, and better communication. The impact of his interventions has been that there are now no reported teenage marriages in the village and 100 percent attendance of girls at the school.

 

Ranjitsinh is also a part of the ‘Let’s Cross the Borders’ project where he is connected with over 19,000 students from eight countries, including, India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, the US, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. The program is aimed at building peace among students in conflict zones. He also teaches students in schools from other parts of the world through the Microsoft Educator community platform and takes them on virtual trips. He also demonstrates scientific experiments to students from his home laboratory to help them better understand concepts.