English
In December 2020, rural Indian teacher, Ranjit Disali, won the honorary title of “Teacher of the Year”.
He teaches at girls' school from the Cannar communities that are famous for their patriarchal and conservative lifestyle. Thanks to him, dozens of girls passed their final exams and got a chance to build a successful future outside the community.
After it became known that the prize for the first place was 1MUSD, Ranjit expressed his desire to split half of the amount among the finalists of the competition. Thanks to this, 9 of his colleagues received a payment of 55kUSD each. This decision created a real sensation in India, as this is the first time in the history of the competition when the winner wanted to share such a large cash prize.
Since 2015, Global Teacher has been running an annual Best Teacher Competition. The main selection criterion for applicants is to make a significant contribution to the development of their professional field and to the knowledge of students. This year, over 12 thousand teachers from 140 countries applied to participate in the competition.
For 11 years, Ranjit Disali worked at Zilla Parishad School. When he first arrived at school, it was a run-down building located between an animal enclosure and a warehouse. In addition, at that time, the school curriculum was taught in Hindi, while the students spoke only their native Kannara language. This made it very difficult to absorb, let alone master the material, so Disali had to translate the entire school curriculum and books into Kannara. Subsequently, he began using QR codes to give the girls the access to teaching materials in their own language.
Thanks to the efforts of Disali, 85% of the students were able to achieve high grades in the final exams, which can open the doors for them to the best universities in the country and even in the world. In addition, Ranjit Disali became famous for setting up in his flat a home studio, from where he conducts online lessons available for everyone interested.
