Global Teacher Prize 2020 Winner : Indian Ranjitsinh Disale

Ranjitsinh Disale hailing from the Indian state of Maharashtra has been announced the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 at a ceremony held in London on December 3.

As the winner, Mr. Disale will be receiving a prize money of US$1million which is usually provided over a period of 10 years.

He has been declared the winner for his contributions to transforming the life chances of young girls at the Zilla Parishad Primary School, Paritewadi, Solapur in the Indian state.

This year the Global Teacher Prize winning announcement was made at a virtual ceremony which was broadcast live from the Natural History Museum in London with the event hosted by comedian, actor, writer and presenter Stephen Fry.

The ceremony also featured a special recognition titled ‘COVID hero’ for one teacher who has gone above and beyond to keep young people on learning track during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID hero award worth US$45,000 has gone to UK mathematics teacher Jamie Frost whose free class titled ‘DrFrostMaths’ became a lifeline for students long out of classrooms all around the world due to the corona pandemic.

Mr. Disale has been selected from over 12,000 nominations and applications from over 140 countries around the world.

The Global Teacher Prize was set up to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession as well as to shine a spotlight on the important role teachers play in society, according to the website of the Varkey Foundation which awards the Prize in partnership with UNESCO.

In the winning speech Mr Disale made the extraordinary announcement that he will share half the prize money with his fellow Top 10 finalists, resulting in the other nine finalists receiving just over US$55,000 each.

This is the first time in the Global Teacher Prize’s six year history that the overall winner has shared the prize money with other finalists.

To note, the Varkey Foundation has also announced the launch of a new Prize called ‘Chegg.org Global Student Prize, a US$50,000 sister prize to the Global Teacher Prize, for which applications and nominations will begin next year.

As per the announcement, the Global Student Prize will create a powerful new platform to highlight the efforts of extraordinary students throughout world that are making a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and on society beyond.

Global Teacher Prize 2021 : Application submission and nominations for the 2021 Prize to be provided by the same foundation will be opening online in January next year.

For details on the next competition, one can keep an eye on the below official website :
https://www.globalteacherprize.org