Global Teacher Prize 2020: Maharashtra School Teacher Ranjitsinh Disale Wins USD 1-Million Global Teacher Prize

Global Teacher Prize 2020: Ranjitsinh Disale, a Zilla Parishad primary school teacher (PRT) at Paritewadi in Solapur, Maharashtra, India has won the prestigious US $1 million Global Teacher Prize 2020.

The Indian village teacher Ranjitsinh Disale was named the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020, in partnership with UNESCO for transforming the life chances of young girls at the zilla parishad primary school and for his outstanding contribution to education and learning.

Sharing Prize Money

On winning the global award, Disale announced that he will share half the prize money with his fellow Top 10 finalists, making it a first in the six-year history of the Global Teacher Prize.

While stating that teaching is all about giving, the global award winner expressed interest to allocate 20 per cent of his prize money for his "Let's Cross the Borders" project that aims to build peace among student and young people from the conflict-torn countries such as India, Pakistan, Palestine, Israel, Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

So far, Ranjitsinh has initiated an incredible 19,000 students from eight countries into this programme. Further to this, using the Microsoft Educator Community platform, Ranjitsinh spends his weekends taking students from schools around the world with depleted resources on virtual field trips.

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Speaking to a Marathi channel, Ranjitsinh Disale said, "A teacher always shares his knowledge, insights with students. I received the prize for the work I did for the teachers, students and for the field of education."

On sharing the prize money Disale said, "So if I share 50 per cent of the prize money with other runner-up teachers, it would help them do what they desire to do in their countries. Of course, I want to work for the students in India. But at the same time, I would like to work for the students across the borders as I believe that the world is my classroom," he added.

The CEO of Microsoft (Satya Nadella) has recognized Ranjitsinh's work as one of three stories from India in his book 'Hit Refresh'.

Read more about Disale's complete work here

Click here to see the Top 10 finalists

Global Teacher Prize 2020 Ceremony Goes Virtual

Mr Disale was selected from over 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries around the world. For the first time, the Global Teacher Prize winning announcement was made at a virtual ceremony broadcast from the Natural History Museum in London, with comedian, actor, writer and presenter Stephen Fry announcing the winner.

What Is Global Teacher Prize

The Global Teacher Prize is a US $1 million award presented annually by the Varkey Foundation, in partnership with UNESCO, to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession.

The Global Teacher Prize serves to underline the importance of educators and the fact that, throughout the world, their efforts deserve to be recognised and celebrated. It seeks to acknowledge the impacts of the very best teachers - not only on their students but on the communities around them.