From Sir, With Love

Winner of the Global Teacher Prize, Ranjitsinh Disale has transformed a village with sense and tech sensibility

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

There’s a palpable goodness about Ranjitsinh Disale that makes him easy to like. On 3 December, 2020, when actor–author Stephen Fry announced that Disale had won the million-dollar Global Teacher Prize, he was, of course, elated. There was something altogether endearing about how he and his family broke into spontaneous celebration. After having settled down, however, Disale told Fry he wanted to share half his prize money with his nine fellow finalists. Speaking to Reader’s Digest on the phone, Disale laughs when we ask him: “Why did you do this?”

“I knew you would ask me that,” he says. “Beyond a little recognition, what is there for the finalists who didn’t win? I believe we are all equals, and that by sharing this prize money, I have actually invested in nine other countries. These teachers will now have more incentive to follow their passion.” Kindness apart, the 33-year-old Disale hopes this gesture will be tangible proof of his “sharing and growing principle”—it’s only when you share knowledge do you create opportunities for growth. “I don’t want to be that person who only talks,” he says. “I want my deeds to speak for themselves, too.”

The 12 years Disale has spent teaching children at the Zilla Parishad Primary School in the Maharashtra village of Paritewadi have been full of action, even adventure. Though his teaching style has relied on technological interventions, his methods are guided by the belief that education cannot be separated from the society it can one day, eventually, better. The Global Teacher Prize, commonly referred to as a ‘Nobel for educators’, has made Disale’s story of dogged determination an inspiration for the world.