Teaching is all about giving Maha teacher on global award win

    Pune, Dec 4 (PTI) Ranjitsinh Disale, a primary teacher
from Maharashtra's Solapur, who won the USD 1-million Global
Teacher Prize 2020, said teaching was all about giving, and
added that he would like to work for students "across the
borders" as he believed that the world was his classroom.
    He also said that he would like 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.
    Disale, 32, who works as a teacher at the Zilla
Parishad Primary School at Paritewadi in Solapur, was on
Thursday named the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 in
recognition of his efforts to promote girls' education and
trigger a quick-response (QR) coded textbook revolution in
India.
    After winning the award, he had announced that he
would share 50 per cent of the prize money equally among his
fellow finalists.
    Speaking to a Marathi channel, 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."
    "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," he said in response to a
query about why he decided to share the prize money.
    "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.
    Disale said he wants to allocate 30 per cent of the
prize money towards "teachers' innovation fund" that he plans
to set up.
    "There are several teachers in the country, who
possess innovative ideas to transform education and I think
that fund can be used for such talent," he added.
    He said he had decided to develop himself as a
"professional teacher".
     "Teachers abroad are more professional. They spend
some part of their earnings on their own development. As a
teacher, when I came in their contact, I could see the
difference," he added.
    Disale feels that he is a teacher from the 20th
century and the students are from the 21st century.
     "So it is like students from the 21st century are
being taught by a teacher from the 20th century with the 19th
century curriculum using techniques of the 18th century. This
is the gap that we need to bridge and I think technology is
the main enabler in this," he added.
     Disale, who studied in a government school, became a
teacher after clearing his DEd course and joined Paritewadi in
Solapur district in 2009.
    When Disale arrived at the school in Paritewadi, it
was a dilapidated building, sandwiched between a cattleshed
and a storeroom. He took on the task of turning things around
and ensuring the textbooks were available in the local
language for the pupils and not only translated the class
textbooks into his pupils' mother tongue, but also embedded
them with unique QR codes to give students access to audio
poems, video lectures, stories and assignments.
    The impact of his interventions has been that there
are now no reported teenage marriages in the village and 100
per cent attendance of girls at the school.
    Disale's school went on to become the first in
Maharashtra to introduce QR codes and after submitting a
proposal and successful pilot scheme, the state ministry
announced in 2017 that they would introduce QR coded textbooks
across the state for all grades. PTI SPK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)