‘Beti Padhao’ To ‘Beti Padhaye’: Two Indian Women In Top 50 Competing For Global Teachers’ Prize 2019

The Varkey Foundation-sponsored Global Teacher Prize 2019 that shortlists top 50 teachers around the world for their exceptional service has two Indians on the list this time, reports India Today.

The two Indian teachers were shortlisted from over 10,000 nominations and applications received from 179 countries, and will compete with 48 others to win the prize that will be declared in Dubai at the Global Education and Skills Forum. The top spot has an award USD 1 million.

The two Indian teachers are both women. Arti Qanungo is an English teacher at Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Shakarpur in Delhi, and Swaroop Rawal is a Life Skills teacher at Lavad Primary School in Gujarat.

Qanungo said to PTI that "Global Teacher Prize acknowledges the efforts and endeavour of teachers and respects them; it gives recognition to the issues I have raised by giving it a global voice.”

Rawal says, “Good teachers can help children become good human beings; they can nurture love, wonder, curiosity and imagination. When we teachers share our lives, we can inspire young ones to become more empathetic, loving, caring and perhaps become more responsible beings.”

Sunny Varkey, the founder of the UK based foundation congratulates Arti and Swaroop for reaching the final 50 and hopes they will inspire more to enter the profession. He says that the prize set up five years ago had inspired over 30 national teacher prizes, thus ensuring the respect and recognition that teachers deserve are given to them.