Indian teacher who created hundreds of learning centers wins $1 million Global Teacher Prize

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Indian teacher and activist known for creating hundreds of learning centers and painting educational murals across the walls of slums won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize on Thursday.

Rouble Nagi accepted the award at the World Governments Summit in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, an annual event that draws leaders from across the globe.

Her Rouble Nagi Art Foundation has established more than 800 learning centers across India. They aim to have children who never attended school begin to have structured learning. They also teach children already in school.

Nagi also paints murals that teach literacy, science, math and history, among other topics.

The prize is awarded by the Varkey Foundation, whose founder, Sunny Varkey, established the for-profit GEMS Education company that runs dozens of schools in Egypt, Qatar and the UAE.

Nagi plans to use the $1 million to build an institute that offers free vocational training.

Nagi is the 10th teacher to win the award, which the foundation began handing out in 2015.

Past winners of the Global Teacher Prize have included a Kenyan teacher from a remote village who gave away most of his earnings to the poor, a Palestinian primary school teacher who teaches her students about non-violence and a Canadian educator who taught a remote Arctic village of Inuit students. Last year’s winner was Saudi educator Mansour al-Mansour, who was known for his work with the poor in the kingdom.

GEMS Education, or Global Education Management Systems, is one of the world’s largest private school operators and is believed to be worth billions. Its success has followed that of Dubai, where only private schools offer classes for the children of the foreigners who power its economy.

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi, left, greets Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum before receiving the Global Teacher Prize trophy from him at a ceremony awarding the Global Teacher Prize in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi walks off the stage after receiving the Global Teacher Prize trophy from Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum at a ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi walks off the stage after receiving the Global Teacher Prize trophy from Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum at a ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi poses for a photograph after receiving the Global Teacher Prize at a ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi, left, receives the Global Teacher Prize trophy from Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, as Varkey foundation founder Sunny Varkey, right, applauds during the ceremony, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indian teacher Rouble Nagi, left, receives the Global Teacher Prize trophy from Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, at a ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

MILAN (AP) — Vice President JD Vance landed in Milan with his family Thursday, the first stop on a trip combining diplomacy and sports where he is leading President Donald Trump's delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and later stopping in Armenia and Azerbaijan in a show of support for a peace agreement brokered by the White House last year.

The weeklong trip may be one of only a few international trips Vance makes this year. Trump and his Cabinet members are taking a tighter focus on domestic issues — and domestic travel — heading into the November midterm elections, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said last month.

On Thursday, Vance plans to meet with U.S. athletes competing in the Milan Cortina Winter Games, and later plans to watch the U.S. women’s hockey team take on Czechia in a preliminary game.

At the opening ceremony for the games on Friday, the vice president will lead a U.S. delegation that includes his wife, second lady Usha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. Former Olympic gold medalists will also be in the delegation, including hockey player sisters Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando; speedskater Apolo Ohno and figure skater Evan Lysacek.

Vance is following in the footsteps of former vice presidents Joe Biden who attended the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 and Mike Pence who traveled to Pyeongchang, Korea in 2018. Former Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because the Biden administration did not send any diplomatic officials as a boycott over human rights concerns.

After Italy, Vance plans to head to Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Trump has tasked him with building on a deal aimed at ending four decades of conflict between the two countries.

The peace agreement boosts the position of the U.S. in the region at a time when Russia’s influence is declining. The two former Soviet republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed under the deal to reopen key transportation routes and bolster cooperation with the United States in energy, technology and the economy. The deal also calls for the creation of a major transit corridor dubbed the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. It is expected to connect Azerbaijan and its autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, which are separated by a 32-kilometer-wide (20-mile-wide) patch of Armenian territory.

Vance’s mission on the trip to further the peace effort is similar to an assignment he took on in October, when he traveled to Israel weeks after a ceasefire was negotiated in its war with Hamas in Gaza, reiterating the Trump administration’s commitment to the effort.

In addition to the Israel stop last year, Vance made trips to France, Germany, Greenland, India, and the U.K. He twice visited Italy, meeting Pope Francis before his death, and later, his successor Pope Leo XIV.

While presidents focus their foreign travel on meetings with some of the U.S.’s biggest allies, vice presidents often are called on to make trips a little off the beaten path. Biden, for example, went to Mongolia in 2011, where he tried some archery and was gifted a horse. In 2017, Pence visited Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro, where he affirmed support for NATO, along with participating in symbolic diplomacy with the planting of an oak tree.

For vice presidents, foreign trips are partly “a function of what the president likes to do — and not like to do,” said Marc Short, who was chief of staff to Pence during Trump’s first term.

Sometimes, trips can include unexpected elements, such as Pence's 2018 trip to the East Asia Summit in Singapore that included an informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Short also recalled a 2019 trip to Poland where Pence was called to fill in for the president who stayed home to monitor Hurricane Dorian. That trip involved a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The reality, obviously, is the president has a lot of other responsibilities,” Short said, “So it’s often important that the United States be represented by the highest official available. In many cases, that’s just the vice president.”

U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino Tilman Fertitta and his wife Paige Fertitta welcome Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance as they arrive ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Vice President JD Vance, second lady Usha Vance and their children Mirabel and Vivek disembark Air Force Two as they arrive ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Vice President JD Vance waves as he and second lady Usha Vance board Air Force Two to travel to the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, from Joint Base Andrews, Md., Feb. 4, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool via AP)