Rouble Nagi – submitted to GEMS Education 2026 Global Teacher Prize
An Indian teacher who has established more than 800 learning centers across India for children who have never attended school has been named the winner of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize from GEMS Education.
Located in over 100 slums and villages, Rouble Nagi’s classrooms offer safe, inspiring spaces to help overcome the challenging conditions shaped by poverty—child labour, early marriage, irregular attendance, and a lack of infrastructure.
Rather than seeing these realities as barriers, Ms. Nagi designs education around real life: flexible schedules for working children, hands-on learning using recycled materials, and practical skills that demonstrate immediate value to families.
As a result, her programs have reduced dropout rates by more than 50% and significantly improved long-term school retention.
Rouble plans to use the $1 million prize money to build a free vocational institute and digital literacy training program to help transform the lives of millions more marginalized young people.
It all started after she was asked to do an art workshop as an artist in her early 20s. “I met a child who’d never seen a pencil, and it was the turning point of my life.” (Watch the video below…)
Rouble Nagi drawing with children – Credit: Apeksha Roy (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Over the last two decades, she has helped bring more than one million children into the formal education system—and one of her not-so-secret weapons is art.
She has transformed abandoned walls into large interactive murals that teach everything from reading, math, and science, to hygiene, history, environmental awareness, and social responsibility.
The murals, funded through her nonprofit Rouble Nagi Art Foundation, are not decorative artworks, but open-air classrooms that draw children into learning, engage parents, and turn entire neighborhoods into partners in education.
“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, who founded the annual Global Teacher Prize and GEMS Education.
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Slums of Jaffer Baba Colony were painted bright colors by Rouble Nagi’s Misaal Mumbai project – by Pburka (CC BY-SA 4.0)
“By bringing education to the most marginalized communities, she has not only changed individual lives, but strengthened families and communities.”
Now in its tenth year, the Global Teacher Prize—which collaborates with UNESCO—is the largest award of its kind, with Nagi selected from over 5,000 nominations and applications from 139 countries.
“This moment reminds us of a simple truth: teachers matter. UNESCO is honored to celebrate teachers like you, who, through patience, determination, and belief in every learner, help children into school—an act that can change the course of a life,” said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education.
Rouble, who is also the author of the book, The Slum Queen, travels extensively across India, working directly with children in the learning centers and mentoring the teachers who lead them.
She has recruited and trained more than 600 volunteer and paid educators, creating a scalable model that meets children where they are—academically, socially, and economically.
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Alongside her work in education, Rouble is an internationally recognized artist. Through the Rouble Nagi Design Studio, she has created more than 850 murals and sculptures and exhibited in 200 shows worldwide, with her work selected for the President of India’s permanent collection.
“Her work reminds us that teachers are the most powerful force for progress in our world.”
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