AN ORDINARY MAN WITH EXTRAORDINARY VIRTUE…….

A 32 -year -old teacher named RANJITSINH DISALE was awarded the Global Teacher Prize 2020 and prize money of $ 1 million for promoting GIRL CHILD EDUCATION and REVOLUTIONISING TEXTBOOKS in India. He is praised internationally and provided the example of how one man can change the lives of many. He had decided to share with his nine fellow finalists half of the prize money. It means they would get $55,000 (40.57 lakh) each. He believes that SHARING IS GROWING.

Ranjitsinh Disale comes from Paritewadi village in Solapur District of Maharashtra. Initially he wanted to be an IT engineer but when things did not work for him, he had indulged himself to take up teacher training programme advised by his father. Gradually he realized that the teachers are the real change-makers in the world.

When he first arrived to teach at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in Paritewadi village, the school building was sandwiched between cattle shed and a storeroom.Disale turned the whole scene around. This young educator first learnt Kannad himself and then translated the textbooks into the local language to help children study in their mother tongue. Disale even organized after school “EDUTAINMENT” activities, like games and movie showings. “I just wanted to create a learning environment for every student that would spark their curiosity and make them innovative problem solvers so that they can contribute to the community,” he said.

Disale became the first to introduce QR codes in his school textbooks so that the children can get link to audio poems, video lectures, assignments and stories. In 2017, the Maharashtra government also decided to do the same across the state for textbooks for all classes. The next year, the HRD ministry announced that all NCERT books across India would have QR codes embedded in them.

Disale has also worked to spread awareness on the ills of teenage marriage and importance of girl’s education. Now, after the revolutionary change it has been reported that, there is a significant improvement in the education system pertaining girl’s education which leads to women empowerment.

He is also passionate about building peace between young people across conflict zones. His ‘LET’S CROSS THE BORDERS’ project connects young people from India and Pakistan, Palestine and Israel, Iraq and Iran and USA and North Korea. He has initiated incredible 19000 students from eight countries into this programme.

Using the Microsoft Educator Community platform, Disale takes students with depleted resources from school around the world on virtual field trip on his weekends.

He is also the winner of the Innovative Research of the year 2016 award, the National Innovative Foundation’s Innovator of the year 2018 award.

His achievement gathered good wishes and appreciations from people around the world including Dalai Lama, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and others.

Ranjitsinh Disale didn’t just win the Global Teacher Prize 2020. He also showed the world how the ideal teacher should be.