Frontlist | Indian teacher animated books with QR code, won global award

Frontlist | Indian teacher animated books with QR code, won global award
on Dec 04, 2020

A primary school teacher from tiny Paritewadi village in Solapur district- who started his career at a school sandwiched between a cattle shed and a storeroom but went on to spark the QR-coded textbook revolution in India, has won the prestigious Global Teacher Prize 2020. Ranjitsinh Disale, 32, emerged the winner from among ten finalists from across the world for the annual prize founded by Dubai-based Indian education philanthropist Sunny Varkey in 2014 to recognise teachers making an outstanding contribution to to the profession. Disale in his acceptance speech declared that he would share 50 per cent of his prize money with his fellow finalists to support their “incredible work”. The other nine finalists will thus receive over $55,000 each. The Global Teacher Prize is not Disale’s first award. In 2016, the Union government named him the Innovative Researcher of the Year and he won the National Innovation Foundation’s Innovator of the Year award in 2018. In 2019, Disale presented his ‘global peace-building program' o educators across the globe, an initiative that was awarded at Microsoft’s Education Exchange event in Paris the same year. The Global Teacher Prize was announced on Thursday via a virtual ceremony broadcasted from Natural History Museum in London by British actor-broadcaster Stephen Fry. Grabs of Disale jumped in joy when Fry read his name and hugging his parents were beamed across the world. Assistant Director General for Education at UNESCO, Stefania Giannini praised the teacher and said teacher like him will stop climate change, eliminate inequalities, and drive forward economic growth.