Winner of Global Teacher Prize 2026: this teacher created hundreds of schools in slums

©Nikhita S via Unsplash

There are moments that change the course of life: for Rouble Nagi, it was meeting a child who had never held a pencil in his life. Today, this scene has transformed into an educational revolution that is sweeping India. The artist-turned-teacher has founded over 800 learning centers in slums and remote villages, bringing education to places where no school existed.

Her name is now in the international spotlight: she has just won the Global Teacher Prize 2026 promoted by GEMS Education, a $1 million prize considered to be the Nobel of teaching.

A school that adapts to life, not the other way round

In neighborhoods marked by poverty, child labor and early marriage, traditional education often fails. Rouble Nagi has turned the paradigm on its head: flexible hours for those who work, practical classes using recycled materials, useful skills for families. More than a pedagogical theory, these centers offer a concrete response to everyday realities.

The results speak for themselves: school drop-out rates have been reduced by over 50%, and the retention rate in the formal education system has risen significantly. In twenty years, more than a million children have been able to enter the classroom thanks to the work carried out by these centers.

Mural paintings to teach children to read the world

The most powerful weapon in this revolution is art. Through the Rouble Nagi Art Foundation, abandoned walls have become open-air classrooms. Colors and shapes don't just decorate: they explain mathematics, science, hygiene, history and provide environmental education. Neighborhoods metamorphose into shared educational spaces, parents become allies, streets fill with letters and numbers. At the same time, through her creative studio, she has created over 850 murals and sculptures, exhibited in 200 shows around the world. We're talking about a recognized artist who has chosen to put her creativity at the service of social change.

One million to build the future

This prize will not be a point of arrival, but a new point of departure. Rouble Nagi will invest this endowment in the creation of a free vocational institute and a digital literacy program, with the aim of offering concrete skills to millions of marginalized young people.

Selected from over 5,000 applications from 139 countries, her story demonstrates that education is not just about access to school, but about the structural transformation of communities. Neither rhetoric nor slogans: a replicable model that puts the most invisible at the center and makes them players in their own right.

Source: Global Teacher Prize / Rouble Nagi Art Foundation

(©GreenMe.it 2026/Managing editor: Julie Morgan - The Press Junction/Picture: Nikhita S via Unsplash)