The Varkey Foundation launched a Global Teacher Award in the year 2014. The award is given for the outstanding contribution in the field of education and it’s prize money is $1 million. For the year 2016, a teacher from Mumbai, Robin Chaurasiya is among top 10 from around the world.
The finalists were announced by Stephen Hawking. Robin is the co-founder of Kranti, an NGO school which educates women in the age group of 12-20 years living in red light area. The students also include girls who have been victims of human trafficking. She has formalised a Social Justice curriculum at Kranti covering the key issues that affect the girls’ lives, such as caste, class, religion, environment and healthcare. The school week consists of Music Mondays, TED Talk Tuesdays, Worldly Wednesdays, Thinking Thursdays and Field Trip Fridays. Weekends include plays, films, and exhibits, as well as required volunteer work in an NGO of their choice.
Robin’s students, called ‘Revolutionaries’ (Krantikaries), have conducted workshops at schools and NGOs for more than 100,000 students and parents, and delivered 11 TEDx talks around the world. They have also written a play about their experiences, which they performed across the US and even at Facebook’s and Google’s headquarters.
Watch their story here.