Indian teacher and activist Rouble Nagi, known for creating hundreds of learning centres and painting educational murals across slums, has won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize. She accepted the award at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
Nagi’s Rouble Nagi Art Foundation has set up more than 800 learning centres across India to provide structured lessons for children who never attended school and to support those already enrolled. Her murals teach literacy, science, math, history and other subjects in community spaces.
The prize is presented by the Varkey Foundation, founded by Sunny Varkey, who also established the for‑profit GEMS Education company that operates dozens of schools in countries including Egypt, Qatar and the UAE. Nagi said she plans to use the $1 million to build an institute offering free vocational training.
Nagi is the 10th recipient of the award, first given in 2015. Past winners include a Kenyan teacher who donated much of his earnings to the poor, a Palestinian primary teacher who taught non‑violence, and a Canadian educator who worked with Inuit students in a remote Arctic village. Last year’s winner was Saudi educator Mansour al‑Mansour, noted for his work with the poor.
GEMS Education, or Global Education Management Systems, is among the world’s largest private school operators and is believed to be worth billions, a success linked to Dubai’s reliance on private schools for children of the city’s foreign workforce.
