Indian village teacher, Ranjitsinh Disale, has won the Global Teacher Prize 2020(World Best Teacher) on Thursday, November 3.
The announcement was made via a virtual ceremony broadcast held at the Natural History Museum in London on Thursday.
Mr Disale beat the likes of Nigeria’sOlasunkanmi Opeifa, South Africa’s Mokhudu Cynthia Machaba alongside seven other teachers from Brazil, USA, Malaysia, UK, South Korea, Vietnam and Italy.
The Indian shocked the world during his acceptance speech as he announced 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.
Mr Disale was 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. Read more about his work here.
The yearly award is worth the sum of US $1m (£747,000).
