In December 2020, Ranjitsinh Disale won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize.
More than 12,000 teachers from across the world received nominations for this award, which was sponsored by the Varkey Foundation and UNESCO.
Disale teaches in rural India, and is known for his advocacy, particularly for girls’ education.
Disale has used many creative methods for delivering instructional content to students in his village, including, for example, the translation of curricular materials into the local language his students use. In recent years he used QR codes to reach students, particularly girls, who could not attend his classes in-person. The codes, which he printed on stickers and hand delivered to students at their homes, contained links to online videos, demonstrations, and supplementary content. This innovative approach has led to other advances in access to reading materials as well - in 2017 the state of Maharashtra included QR codes in its textbooks, with links to supplementary content and demonstrations to accompany the main text.
This has turned out to be crucial and critical during the COVID-19 lockdowns, where Disale’s students have transitioned to remote learning with ease.
Disale’s work has demonstrated the value of adequate access to teaching and learning materials, including both reading materials and additional support for learners. His creative use of contextually appropriate technologies to ensure his students have access to these critical tools for learning has implications for reaching underserved learners worldwide.
Image credit: "Trackable Geocaching QR Code Stickers" by Michael Kappel is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0