Is it possible for a modest Indian teacher to ever win 1 million US Dollars? Is it
possible for a teacher from a small town in India to be recognized by the
UNESCO on a global stage? A primary school teacher has just achieved this
feast. Meet Maharashtra’s Ranjitsinh Disale, the man who made it possible.
Ranjitsinh
Disale won the global 1 – million USD annual Global Teacher Prize 2020 for his
efforts to promote girl education in India and spark off QR coded textbooks in
the country.
What
left the world even more astounded was the sheer generosity of Mr. Ranjitsinh.
He decided to distribute 50% of the prize money among the top 10 finalists in
order to support their “incredible work”. He strongly believes that
teachers are the world’s real change-makers who are changing the lives of their
students with a mixture of chalk and challenges.
Ranjitsinh Disale after witnessing iconic moment
Disale
is a primary school teacher from Paritewadi village in the Solapur district of
Maharashtra. He has put in some exceptional efforts to bring about a change in
the educational system of India. However, when Ranjitsinh Disale arrived at the
Zila Parishad Primary School in Paretawadi, it was really in a bad shape in
every aspect.
Tribal
girls’ underage marriage was one of the major concerns encountered by Disale. The unavailability of books in Kannada added to the existing miseries. Disale worked
extensively to spread awareness of the ills of underage marriages and the value
of girls’ education. Ranjitsinh Disale’s unique efforts yielded unprecedented
results. Today, there are no reported teenage marriages in their village and
girls’ attendance has risen to 100% at the school.
He
then took the responsibility to redesign the books from Std. 1-4 in such a way
that students could better understand the subject. Ranjitsinh started off by
ensuring that the textbooks were available in the vernacular language for the
kids. Disale not only translated the books in the local language but also
embedded the books with unique QR codes. This code gave the students access to
various audio poems, video lectures, and other assignments.
Moreover,
Disale’s school went on to become the first to introduce QR codes in the state
of Maharashtra. After submitting a proposal and a promising pilot programme, the
state ministry declared in 2017 that for all grades they would introduce QR-coded textbooks throughout the state.
The
Human Resources Development Ministry announced in 2018 that all NCERT textbooks
would entail QR codes. Earlier, Ranjitsinh Disale made his place in the final
10 from over 12,000 nominations and applications from more than 140 countries.
