An Indian artist and educator who has spent 24 years turning slum walls into open-air classrooms has won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, chosen from more than 5,000 nominations across 139 countries.
Rouble Nagi began her work in Mumbai three decades ago after meeting a boy who could not afford school. Through her nonprofit, the Rouble Nagi Art Foundation, she has since built more than 800 learning centers across over 100 underserved communities and villages in India, reaching more than a million children.
Central to her approach is what she calls 'Living Walls of Learning': murals painted across abandoned or neglected walls that teach literacy, numeracy, science, hygiene, environmental awareness, and social responsibility to anyone who walks past. "By turning walls into 'Living Walls of Learning,' we use murals to teach literacy, numeracy, science, hygiene, environmental awareness, and social responsibility," Nagi told The Hindu.
The foundation says its model has helped reduce dropout rates by more than half in the communities it serves. "Rouble Nagi represents the very best of what teaching can be, courage, creativity, compassion, and an unwavering belief in every child's potential," said Sunny Varkey, founder of the Global Teacher Prize and GEMS Education, which organizes the award in partnership with UNESCO.
Nagi plans to use the prize money to build a free vocational and digital literacy institute, starting in Jammu and Kashmir, the region where she grew up.
