| Founder(s) | Shaheen Mistri, |
|---|---|
| Type | Education |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Location | Mumbai, India |
| Area served | Mumbai, Pune |
| Focus | Eliminate Educational Inequity |
| Motto | One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. |
| Website | teachforindia.org |
Teach For India (TFI) is a nationwide movement that aims to bridge the educational gap in India by placing outstanding college graduates and young professionals in low-income schools to teach full-time for 2 years. It was established in 2007, when a group of leaders working to reform education in India came together to seek an innovative solution to ending educational inequity in the country.[1][2] The group firmly believed that any change in the education sector needed to be systemic and that India needed to be infused with a large number of leaders who would work towards achieving educational equity for all children. During this time, the group meet with Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder of Teach For America (TFA),to discuss the feasibility of Teach For America’s Theory of Change working in India. Seeking to adapt the Teach For America model to the Indian context, the group engaged with a number of stakeholders within the government, at academic institutions and at corporations and were encouraged by the favorable response they received. A few months later, a twelve week study was launched by McKinsey & Company to determine the feasibility of implementing this model in India. The study concluded favorably and at the end of the process, a plan to place the first cohort of Fellows as well as a plan to grow the movement to scale for the next five years was put in motion.
Despite India’s expanding economy, millions of citizens in the country remain marginalized, with no access to the new found opportunities within the country. One of the primary reasons for this is inequity in the quality of education received by thousands of children from low-income communities. This inequity denies those without adequate funds a proper education, leaving them illiterate and weak to break the cycle of poverty, and participate in the country’s economic prosperity.
India is currently facing one of the worst educational crises in the world. [3]
Our classrooms are understaffed (1 in 4 teachers will be absent on any given day)
Our teachers could be more engaged (Only 50% are likely to be teaching at any given time)
Our drop-out rate is unusually high (More than 1 in 3 children who begin primary school will drop out before reaching 5th grade)
Teach For India believes that in order for the country to achieve educational equity for all children, we need a movement of leaders across sectors who are committed to and will work toward ensuring that every child in India receives an excellent education. [4]
To build this movement of leaders, Teach For India recruits India's most outstanding college graduates and young professionals to serve as teachers in low-income schools for two years.In the short run, these young leaders act as a source of dedicated teachers in government and low-income private schools. Teach For India provides resources, training, and support to the Fellows so they can employ innovative teaching strategies and maximize their effectiveness in the classroom. During the two-years, Fellows gain important knowledge and experience of India's educational system and its challenges, which enables them to provide solutions to problems faced within their classrooms and school communities.
In the long-run, Teach For India will build a powerful and ever-growing leadership force of alumni who, informed by their experiences and insights, will work from inside and outside the educational system to effect fundamental, long-term changes necessary to ultimately realize educational opportunity for all. Upon completion of their two years of service, Teach For India Alumni will collaborate through the organization's Alumni Network, and regardless of the career path they choose after their Teach For India Fellowship, will work toward fighting educational inequity in India.
Teach For India Fellows range between 20-35 years of age, with an even distribution between men and women. They come from all parts of India, with adequate representation from all geographical regions of the country. It also has international representation from the UK, Australia, Asia comprising around 10 percent of the Teach for India Fellows.
Examples of leadership positions held by Teach For India Fellows
Teach For India Fellows are those who have demonstrated leadership in a variety of ways - College festival coordinators, Editors of college magazines, Leaders of diverse college clubs and societies, Managers of departments and projects at work, Heads of sports teams and clubs, Corporate team leaders, leaders of youth groups such as IAESTE and Rotaract.
Examples of commitment to the community
Teach For India Fellows have been participants of Corporate CSR initiatives, NSS members, volunteers at low-income schools and communities, volunteers at animal shelters, leaders and members of social initiatives and projects, writers on matters of social concern.
Educational Institutions that Teach For India Fellows have attended
Teach For India Fellows come from hallowed institutions such as IIT, IIM-C, Harvard University, National Law School, Bangalore, SRCC, Delhi, BITS-Pilani, St. Stephens, Delhi and Princeton University, USA. [5]
Organisations that Teach For India Fellows have worked at[6] [7]
Teach For India Fellow have worked in a range of sectors and at organisations such as Goldman Sachs, Hindustan Unilever, Accenture, Citi Bank, Mckinsey and Company, Thermax, Microsoft and Infosys.
The Teach For India Fellowship is probably the most challenging and transformational experience of a Fellow's life. As teachers in classrooms, Fellows have multiple opportunities to confront and tackle challenges, motivate diverse stakeholders to work hard toward a shared vision, create and adjust plans to move further towards their goals and gain the confidence they need to succeed.
Every Teach For India Fellow has two main responsibilities, through which he/she learns leadership skills in a hands-on, results-driven environment.
Classroom Instructional Leadership
Fellows are full-time teachers in English-medium government or low-income private schools for two consecutive academic years. Fellows are expected to lead students in their classrooms toward academic achievement that defies traditional expectations. Fellows foster this achievement by getting to know their students in and out of the classroom; creating instructional plans to match the whole class' and individual student's needs; delivering instruction in an engaging manner; working with other teachers, administrators and community members to build skills and obtain resources for the classroom; and administering and analyzing assessments to ensure that students are progressing towards their academic goals.
School Transformation/Leadership Project
In addition to teaching, Fellows implement a transformational project in the school and/or students' community.
Fellows choose to tackle one primary challenge to students' achievement (after discussions with school communities and leaders) and create innovative and sustainable solutions to this problem. To carry out this project effectively, Fellows research and plan the project; amass resources necessary to implement the project; invest students, families, teachers, administrators and/or community members to help implement the project; and troubleshoot the project in its execution phase.
By designing, implementing and managing a small-scale, sustainable project within the school community, Fellows build upon their leadership and project management skills. These leadership and management skills are transferable and Fellows can utilize the lessons learned through this project in other work they do after the duration of the Fellowship. Through this project, Fellows also develop a deep understanding of the many barriers to achievement and the complex problems associated with achieving equity in education. This experience shapes and guides the methods through which Fellows tackle educational inequity in the country, both in the short term and long term.
Teach For India feels that a range of issues must be addressed in concert for systemic change in the educational sector to come about, from improved teacher training to increased accountability for school performance to alignment from the media. Through the course of their careers, Teach For India Fellows will take on each of these issues and more, working to effect positive change in education, from inside and outside the education sector. [8]
Teach For India aims to expose Fellows to information about potential career tracks and provide professional enrichment opportunities, to aid their career decision-making and bolster the strength of their job and graduate degree program applications.
Action Curriculum
The Action Curriculum consists of 5 optional courses which Fellows pursue in the second year, to learn about how to effect change from within any given sector of interest: Social enterprise, CSR, Government, Education or Advocacy.
Opportunities
Teach For India has developed relationships with organizations across sectors, including higher education institutions, aligned with Fellows’ career interests, and facilitates interactions between Fellows and these institutions to help Fellows secure placements. Teach For India also has a large number of partnerships to provide summer internships between years 1 and 2 of the Fellowship.
Corporates: A large and growing number of corporates support Teach For India alumni by offering deferrals on job offers for new hires choosing to pursue the Fellowship, and/or recruiting from the pool of Fellows while giving 2 years of work experience credit.
Tie-ups include Avantha Group, AZB & Partners, Citibank, Godrej Industries, Goldman Sachs, HDFC Standard Life, ICICI Pru, McKinsey & Company, Mastek, Monitor Group, Tata Chemicals, Yes Bank and Zensar Technologies.
Non-profits: Teach For India's non-profit partners recruit from the Fellowship pool and recognize Teach For India as work experience. These include Akanksha, iDiscoveri, Muktangan and the Riverside School.
Graduate schools: Graduate schools tie up with Teach For India in a variety of ways, offering admission deferrals, assistance with loans and scholarships, recognizing Teach For India as valid work experience, and even reserving seats for Fellows. Additionally, IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore cancel the fees of graduates who join certain NGOs including Teach For India. Current graduate school tie-ups include ISB, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School and Columbia Law School.
Summer internships: Teach For India partners with a wide variety of organizations to provide summer internship opportunities for Fellows between years one and two of the Fellowship. These include: Akanksha, Avantha Group, Bharat Petroleum, Beyond Profit, Citizens for Peace, Education Initiatives, Hindustan Pencils, Intellecap, Kirloskar, Manav Sadhana, Mastek, Operation Smile, Teach First, Teach For All and Ummeed.
When Fellows started teaching in June 2009, most of the students could not speak English; many had trouble reading English. There was also high absenteeism among students. Most students were several grades lower than the one they were studying in. A year into the Fellowship, the attendance rates have increased from 81% to 89% and reading fluency has gone up from 27 words per minute to 62 words per minute. Fellows have also built relationships beyond the classroom with parents, principals and teachers in their schools. In the coming years, we aim for an average of 1.5 years of skills-growth from students' incoming skill level in reading comprehension, math, grammar and writing. 85% of the schools that Teach For India is already associated with, have requested more Fellows. Within the two placement cities of Teach For India, the number of schools and students impacted grew from 34 schools in year 1 to 70 in year 2, and from 2,800 students to 7,500.
Teach For India is expanding to Delhi and aims to have 300 new Fellows join in 2011. Teach For India aims to place 1500 fellows in 10 cities impacting 45,000 students by 2013-14.
In the short run, TFI will provide a source of dedicated teachers who will work diligently to expand, in a measurable way, the educational opportunities available to thousands of India’s most underprivileged children. In the long-run, Teach For India will build a powerful and ever-growing leadership force of alumni who, informed by their experiences and insights, will work from inside and outside the educational system to effect fundamental, long-term changes necessary to ultimately realize educational opportunity for all. Regardless of the career path they choose after their Teach For India Fellowship, the Fellows will work toward fighting educational inequity in India, with their willingness and capacity to create change.