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India – Rajnitsinh Disale

The Global Teacher Prize Winner of 2020, Ranjitsinh Disale, is one of a kind. His methods got global recognition after he embarked on a journey to change the lives of girl children in India. From QR coded textbooks to a peace led initiative, Ranjit has truly touched the hearts of many. The first school he ever taught in was a dilapidated building and the community never gave any importance to education for girls. The curriculum too was not in Kannada, their primary language so Ranjit learnt the language and recreated the course material. This is just the beginning of his journey, he kept up his promise of sharing 50% of the prize money if he were to win and today, Ranjitsinh Disale Foundation brings 9 other finalists as his partners in achieving the goal of education for all.

DRIVING FORCE

Preparing children for the real world, giving them a chance at equal opportunities and making them confident for a digital-led working environment has always been the driving force for Ranjit. In India, there are a lot of communities that face social evils like child marriage or teenage marriage robbing little girls the chance of a bright future. Teacher training courses led Ranjit to discover that he can be a real change-maker for children. Another purpose of his is to create a peacefully driven society, where future thought leaders get an understanding of other cultures, country residents and do away with differences because we are all one.

IMPACT

Apart from becoming the first Indian teacher to win the Global Peace Prize award, Ranjit’s efforts have always created an impact. His school won the Best School in the district in 2016, the CEO of Microsoft even highlighted his work in his book Hit Refresh. Several other accolades, media coverage has been dedicated to the work he has done and NCERT even adopted his QR Coded textbooks in Maharashtra at large. This is just the beginning, Ranjit has a lot in store for the future after receiving the funds that will help fuel his purpose and transform many lives.

CHALLENGE

In India, one of the major challenges remains to be the prevalent social evils. In smaller villages and communities, education isn’t considered a priority. Girls are married off early and taught to do house chores instead. Add to this, the education system is uniform and doesn’t cater to the unique language needs of most students. For education, you need a system where a student learns at their pace which is exactly what the QR coded textbooks were able to do for students.

STEP FORWARD

With the funds, Ranjitsinh Disale plans to boost a lot of initiatives related to education heavily backed by technological innovation.

Build Back Confidence: This initiative will focus on creating a seamless home-learning environment for girl children who have suffered due to lack of resources since COVID-19 pandemic hit. The first set of phases will focus on working with Teachers to make content accessible & those who will closely monitor the learning curve of girl students. Performances will be tracked with the intention to reduce the educational gap between boys & girls.

Let’s Cross the Borders: Students from two countries that have a history of tension come together to engage in peaceful conversation with an exchange program. That is the idea behind Ranjit’s peace program which has worked with 18,000 students and the numbers continue to grow. Thought change starts at an early age and it leads to a positive change in society, humanity and the world at large.
Theory of Change: To make children curious about scientific enquiry and creativity, a Virtual Field Trip program has been designed. After building a team of STEM Experts, there will be a virtual platform that will be launched which will become the hub of all creative & scientific activities. This will be a two-way model where students will also provide feedback & teachers will also mentor the children. This program is in line with the current teaching scenario and how to make it more engaging for a student using digital innovation.

These initiatives are not just limited to particular communities but aim to reach far and beyond after crossing borders and creating a worldwide impact.