Ranjitsinh Disale, a Primary School Teacher at the Zilla Parishad Primary School, Paritewadi, Solapur, Maharashtra, India has been named the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020. As per the citiation Disale has been awarded for transforming the life chances of young girls at his school. The Global Teacher Prize, in partnership with UNESCO, is given to exceptional teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to their profession.
Ranjitsinh Disale’s award was announced on the 3rd December 2020, in London, UK.
Transforming Education with QR coded textbooks
When Ranjitsinh arrived at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in 2009 it was a dilapidated building, sandwiched between a cattle shed and a storeroom. Most of the girls were from tribal communities where school attendance could sometimes be as low as 2% and teenage marriage was common. For those that did make it to school, the curriculum was not in their primary language (Kannada), leaving many students unable to learn at all.
Ranjitsinh was determined to turn this around, moving to the village and going to great efforts to learn the local language. Ranjitsinh then 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.
Crucially, by analysing their reflections Ranjitsinh would change the content, activities and assignments in the QR coded textbooks to create a personalized learning experience for each student. Further to this, he upgraded the QR Coded Textbooks with immersive reader and Flipgrid tools to aid girls with special needs.
The impact of Ranjitsinh’s interventions has been extraordinary: there are now no teenage marriages in the village and 100 per cent attendance by girls at the school. The school was also recently awarded the best school in the district with 85% of his students achieving A grades in annual exams. One girl from the village has now graduated from University, something seen as an impossible dream before Ranjitsinh arrived.
Ranjitsinh then went on to create nothing short of a revolution in the use of QR coded textbooks throughout India. His school was the first in the state of Maharashtra to introduce them 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 1-12. Following the success of this, HRD Ministry of India asked NCERT (National Council of Education Research and Training) to study the impact of QR Coded Textbooks and how this can be scaled up nationally.
Earlier Winners of Global Teacher Prize
Peter Tabichi, a science teacher from Kenya was awarded the GTP in 2019 for his dedication, hard work and passionate belief in his student’s talent which led his poorly-resourced school in remote rural Kenya to emerge victorious after taking on the country’s best schools in national science competitions. He also gives away 80% of his monthly income to help the poor.
Andria Zafirakou from Alperton in United Kingdom won the 2018 award for brining children and parents of communities from world over together. Andria learned the basics of many of the 35 languages in Alperton’s pupil population and was able to reach out to her once marginalised students to earn their trust and, crucially, establish relationships with their parents. Thanks to her efforts, Alperton is now in the top 1 to 5% of the country in terms of qualifications and accreditations.
Maggie MacDonnell from the Canada received the Global Teacher Prize award in 2017 for teaching indigenous communities and creating life skills programmes for many years in the remote town in the Canadian Arctic.
The 2016 award was conferred on Hanan Al Hroub for offering specialist care to students exposed to violence and for focusing on providing a safe space in the classroom and paying attention to their individual needs.
The first Global Teacher Prize in 2015 was awarded to Nancie Atwell from the United States for innovative and caring teaching methods which had made an inspirational impact on students from underprivileged families and their community.
About Varkey Foundation
The Varkey Foundation is a global charitable foundation focused on improving the standards of education for underprivileged children. It was formed in 2010 by Indian businessman Sunny Varkey, the founder and chairman of GEMS Education, the world’s largest operator of kindergarten-to-grade-12 schools. The foundation’s main focuses are improving global teacher capacity by training tens of thousands of teachers and principals in developing countries; providing access to education via a variety of programmes and projects; and advocating for change in, and conducting research that can help develop, education policies worldwide.
The Varkey Foundation has partnered with a variety of major global organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, and the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2013 it launched the Global Education and Skills Forum, an annual education summit dedicated to addressing the world’s educational needs. After analyzing the public status of teachers worldwide, in 2014 it launched the annual Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award to an outstanding pioneering teacher who has had a widespread impact. Sunny Varkey who leads the foundation is a “Goodwill Ambassador” of UNESCO.
(News source: www.globalteacherprize.org)
Dr. Niranjan B Poojar 
Bhagyashree Gupta