Indian teacher wins $1m prize for promoting girls’ education

The Indian teacher was announced by renowned actor Stephen Fry as the winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020 at a virtual ceremony broadcast on Thursday from the Natural History Museum in London.

Disale immediately announced he would share half the $1m prize money with the nine other finalists.

His decision means $55,000 will go to each of the other nine finalists from nations including Italy, Nigeria and South Korea.

Disale is the sixth winner of the award, established by the Varkey Foundation and is given in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

He said the global coronavirus pandemic had shown the importance of education to communities.

In this hard time, teachers are giving their best to make sure every student has access to their birthright of a good education,” he said.

Indian currently has more than 9.5 million coronavirus cases, the second-highest in the world after the United States.

Disale added that all teachers were “the real changemakers who are changing the lives of their students” and it was in this spirit that he said he was sharing his winnings.