Solapur Teacher Wins $1 Million Global Teacher Prize
Ranjitsinh Disale, a Zilla Parishad teacher from Solapur, won the ‘Global Teacher Prize 2020’ after competing with 12,000 teachers across the globe.
Ranjitsinh Disale, a Zilla Parishad teacher from Solapur, won the ‘Global Teacher Prize 2020’. The Global Teacher Prize is conducted by Varkey Foundation. It had 12,000 nominations from across the world. 10 were shortlisted in 2019 and Ranjitsinh was one of them. Ranjitsinh has been awarded the Global Teacher Prize 2020 for his extraordinary work to empower girls and promote education. The prize money awarded is $ 1 million, equivalent to Rs 7 crore in India. Over a decade ago in 2009, Rajnitsinh Disale walked in the Zilla Parishad school, in the remote Paritewadi village located in Solapur. The building was a rundown building that had cattle shed on one side and a storeroom on the other. The students were mainly from the tribal community. They sat in the middle room. Only 2 % were girls.
But today, the school is known to the world. It is because of the efforts of Ranjitsinh who transformed their educational system through technology. In an interview Ranjitsinh said , “I would distribute half the amount to the other nine contestants for their exceptional work” Ranjtsinh added that he may have won the award, but he cannot change the world by himself. So the runner-ups should get equal opportunity to continue their exceptional work. He currently has 110 students and he has convinced the girls and their parents to educate them. Thanks to his efforts, there are no teenage marriages in the village and it sees 100% attendance rates. Majority of the students understood Kannada language, so Ranjitsinh had to learn the language and translate the syllabus from Class I to IV and share his knowledge through the technology. The technology helped students access video lectures, audio poems and assignments.
The school also got the Best School Award from the Maharashtra State Government. In 2018, Ranjitsinh was awarded the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert by Microsoft itself. He was also awarded the Innovator of the Year by the Government's National Innovation Foundation. On Monday 7th December, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his deputy Ajit Pawar felicitated Ranjitsinh for winning the Global Teacher Award.
