Ranjitsinh Disale is a primary teacher in a government school in Maharashtra and the winner of the prestigious Global Teacher Prize (2020). His work is an excellent example of the small changes at grassroot level which can achieve astounding results in the quality of primary school education and learning. Mr. Disale identified that the students are not able to achieve the expected learning outcomes due the lack of curriculum resources in their native language.

With tremendous effort, he embarked on the mission to redesign textbooks for grades 1-4 in students’ primary language for better comprehension and added QR codes that allowed students to access audio poems, related video lectures, and assignments. He used these QR coded textbooks to create a personalized learning environment for every child. Based on the success of his QR coded textbooks, the HRD ministry later announced that all NCERT textbooks would have embedded QR codes. He has contributed significantly to promote girls’ education and stop their teenage marriages.

These unconventional and innovative teaching styles earned him various awards including Innovative Researcher of the Year 2016, and the National Innovation Foundation’s Innovator of the Year Award 2018. His work has also been recognized in Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s book ‘Hit Refresh’. Recently, he has also been appointed as World Bank Education Advisor for the year 2021-24. We are very pleased to have him here.