Top teacher wins $1m prize and gives half away

Top teacher wins $1 million - and shares it - 14th December 2020

Ranjitsinh Disale, a teacher from a village primary school in India, has been named as this year's winner of the Global Teacher Prize. Surprisingly, he has decided to share the $1 million prize money with other teachers.

The Global Teacher Prize is awarded every year to the world's most exceptional teacher. Teachers from all over the world are nominated for helping their students. This year, the competition recognised 12,000 teachers. For the first time, a second prize was also given to a teacher for their work during the Covid-19 Pandemic. UK teacher Jamie Frost won the 'Covid Hero' award for running a free maths website.

Mr Disale won the main prize for improving the education of disadvantaged girls. In his local area of Paritewadi, it's common for poor girls to miss school and get married early. He ensures they attend school and achieve high results. He also provides online science lessons for pupils in 83 countries. On top of that, he runs an international project which builds connections between young people who live in war zones.

In a first for the competition, Mr Disale donated half of his prize to the top 10 runners up. He said that in this hard time, teachers were giving their best to make sure every student had access to a good education.

Sunny Varkey set up the Global Teacher Prize with his organisation the Varkey Foundation. He is pleased with Mr Disale's decision. He said, "by sharing the prize, you teach the world the importance of giving."