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s2020 Global Teacher Prize Laureate Angitsinh Desil hasn’t always wanted to teach. He was an aspiring engineer, but soon had to drop out of college and go home for personal reasons. It was his father who suggested that he join the teachers training college.
Initially uninterested, teaching slowly grew on him, as he was so influenced by his teachers there. “They boosted the confidence of their students, and changed me all the time,” he recalled in an interview. India’s best. “I learned there how teachers are real change-makers. I thought it was a noble profession.”
He began to think about how he, too, could change lives through education, especially students from low-income backgrounds.
He did six months training under Mr. Rajendra Mani, who taught him how to deal and empathize with students. “Teach me how to listen to their problems, to everything they tell us.”
Today, his efforts have led to 100 per cent attendance, especially girls, in the Paritywadi School he teaches. He also started the practice of including QR codes in textbooks and helped 300 schools adapt them. This initiative has now been implemented through the state of Maharashtra. He also created scholarships worth Rs 1 lakh for the education of 10 girls.
Great challenges and revolutionary solutions
On January 5, 2009, Ranjitsinh arrived at Paritiwadi village, Zilla Parishad Primary School in Solapur District. “I still remember my first day. I was this very passionate teacher who wanted to change the system and had so many ideas. I just wanted a class.”
However, his class was sandwiched between a cowshed and a storeroom. On some days, attendance was as low as 2 percent. And the parents didn’t complain about the situation either. “I realized that parents didn’t understand the importance of education,” he recalls.
“To address these issues, I put together a five-year business plan and initiated several projects.”
His first step was to go to every house in Paritewadi and start an informal dialogue with the community, understand their view towards education, and establish himself as their friend and confidant. “It took a while. But after six to seven months, I realized I could make the change I wanted.”
“I ask parents a very simple question – ‘Do you want your children to be like her (someone whose life has changed), or do you want your children to do the same thing you do?'” “
“I realized I had to innovate in the classroom, and study in a different way,” he says. Since the students are more interested in visual media, borrowing money from his father, he buys a laptop for the class to view YouTube videos and create PowerPoint presentations.
He was also playing movies on the laptop. “We were just having fun, dancing, singing, all of that.” He was sending the message that school is different now – a place to have fun and have fun. The children then went home and discussed their day with friends, shocking those who hadn’t come to class. It made going to class a more desirable option than manual labor all day. “It was to get the attention of the few remaining students. And they started attending class as well.”
Within a year and a half, Ranjitsin achieved 100% attendance in his class.
Entertainment must now be transformed into educational entertainment. He then proceeded to learn each student’s learning style—be it through visual media, auditory aspects, face-to-face explanations, or others—and grouped the children according to their learning style, adjusting his teaching accordingly.
He also implemented an “Alarm On, TV Off” initiative, setting an alarm on the school building, which would promptly ring at 7pm each evening. “It was a signal for parents to stop working or do whatever they were doing. Sit down with your kids and ask about school, and help them complete their homework.”
In the early afternoon, he would text parents to tell them what to do and ask them for the evening, and what homework he was assigned. He says such parental involvement reinforces the importance of studies among students.
While these things are routine in urban areas, Ranjitsin says, in rural areas, parents believe that education is the teacher’s forte, not their cup of tea. But the education system should not be isolated from society. Teachers, parents and students are the three pillars of education. I wanted these three pillars to work in tandem.”
He also started recording and sharing his lessons on mobile phones, but he faced many technological problems. Inspired by a QR code payment he saw in a store, Ranjitsin then decided that education should also be accessible. He taught himself what a QR code is and how to embed information in it.
“I created 27 QR codes for my students. It was helping the kids learn in a much better way, and understand more.”
All the students had to do now was scan the QR code with the phones they had and access the digital content, and they could understand the concepts better. He says this was particularly helpful for girls, who often had to handle responsibilities around the house and couldn’t always attend school. He adds that many girls stay away from school during their period. With QR codes, their education proceeded without a hitch.
Ranjitsyn realized that this was a great help to education, making it more accessible, and the QR code revolution quickly took off.
For one year, he generated QR codes for 300 schools around him. A very unique idea, it soon came to the notice of the Maharashtra government, who saw it as an idea that should be replicated. In 2019, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that all NERC textbooks would be embedded with QR codes.
“During the pandemic, this helped a lot. Schools are closed but students are still able to continue studying.” Students can learn when they want to, and how they want to.
Struggling toward a brighter future
After winning the 2020 Global Teacher Prize, Ranjitsyn immediately shared half of his $1 million win with the finalists.
“I get the prize money for the next 10 years, at 10 per cent every year. I move around Rs 16 lakh after taxes etc.” In total for 2021, he has given out scholarships of Rs 1 lakh for every 10 girls who complete their graduation. He invested the other Rs 6,000 in his Let’s Cross Borders project, which connects youth from India, Pakistan, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Iran and other conflict zones.
“After I receive the award, I get requests from all over the world about wanting to take the course. I have to redesign the curricula now,” he says.
Total 2022 plans to invest in teacher innovation. There is no mechanism to support teachers in their projects. Therefore, I offer incentives to teachers, and support their initiatives and projects.”
He put particular emphasis on this because of the way he sees teachers being treated in the state today. We do not respect their work. We do not respect their status in society.” He points out that if we want our children to do better, want more education, then one needs to acknowledge teachers as a central point. He says India needs to invest more in its teachers.
“Just take the example of the cricket team. We have 11 players. But to support those 11 players we have a team of six to seven coaches. But I don’t see any support on the ground for teachers. What if a teacher doesn’t know how to teach disabled students? What about teachers who feel depressed? Is there a mechanism by which we can detect their problems? No.”
Besides supporting teachers, Ranjitsin also wants to see a more holistic approach to Indian education. “I would like to see the private sector and the government sector working together,” he says, addressing the current gap between the two.
He adds that while the government has broad scope, the private sector has advanced technologies and can provide unparalleled support.
As he envisions and works for a brighter future for the students, this guru is still working in Paritewadi, at least for the next six months. But he’s looking for a transition next year, so he can spread his impact in more tangible ways and impact students’ lives as planned from day one.
Edited by Divya Sethu
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