Teach For India

Teach For India (TFI) is a non-profit founded by Shaheen Mistri in 2009. It is a part of the Teach For All network.[1] Teach For India runs a two-year Fellowship and supports an Alumni movement. The Fellowship recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in low-income schools for two years.[2] The mission of Teach For India is “one day all children will attain an excellent education.”[3][4][5]

Teach For India
Founded2009
TypeEducation, Nonprofit organisation
FocusEliminating Educational Inequity in India
Location
Area served
New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata
Key people
Shaheen Mistri - Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Websitewww.teachforindia.org

History

In 2006, the founder of Teach For India Shaheen Mistri, 17 years after starting the Akanksha Foundation felt compelled to address the issue of educational inequity at a larger scale. She believed that the solution was a people's movement that needed to come in unison to provide every Indian child with an outstanding education.

In 2007, Shaheen Mistri met with Wendy Kopp, the Founder of Teach For America, and the ideation process to keep ‘leadership’ at the core was ignited.

In 2009, Teach For India welcomed the first cohort, the Class of 2009, to the Fellowship. The 87 ‘Niners’ formed the beginning of a nationwide movement of diverse leaders.

In 2011, two years later, the Niners graduated from the Fellowship and became the first cohort in Teach For India's Alumni movement. The first cohort of Alumni then went on to work in several pathways such as teaching, teacher training, school leadership, and government policy solving the complex problem of educational equity.

Today, Teach For India has 900 Fellows working relentlessly to change the lives of Students in their classrooms and have become leaders driving change. Now, the organization has over 3400 Alumni who are collectively fuelling the larger movement towards their vision.

Geographical Reach

Mumbai

In the year 2009, the first cohort of the Teach For India Fellowship began in Mumbai and Pune with 87 Fellows. In 2011, they graduated with 46 Fellows and 1122 Students.

In the year 2015, The Alumni movement grew bigger. The city of Mumbai started to steadily grow its Alumni network from 43 Alumni in 2011 to 280 in 2015. ‘321’ was Mumbai's first Alumni led organization.

In the year 2020, Teach For India Mumbai collaborated with MCGM. Teach For India's partnership with the government evolved over the years from being a mere service provider to reaching out to Teach for India for advice and collaborating on projects like training MCGM staff, Student Advisory Council, and best practice sharing.

The recent numbers for 2021 shows that 144 Fellows, 3500 Students, and 860 Alumni members are in the city of Mumbai.

Pune

In 2009, the first cohort began in Pune with 87 Fellows. In the year 2011, Pune's first cohort graduated with 32 Fellows and 1100 Students.

In 2018, Pune received Secondary Education Access to English-medium secondary classrooms, which was a huge challenge for Pune's kids. This issue was addressed through the PPP model partnerships with Aakanksha Foundation and iTeach Schools.

The recent numbers indicates that Pune has 145 Fellows, 6500 Students, and 840 Alumni members.

Ahmedabad

In the year 2014, Teach For India reached Ahmedabad and had its first cohort with 34 Fellows and 1,100 Students. The Samait Shala was founded by a 2014 Ahmedabad Fellow, Kushal Dattani. The organization, Samait Shala trains teachers directly to ensure that classrooms are inclusive of students who learn in different ways and at different paces.

In 2016, they started operations in 20 schools in Ahmedabad with 80 Fellows and 2,000 Students. The elementary Students in the state were known to outperform on every single metric when it came to the mastery of basic operations and reading. Teach For India was above the state and city averages for both the learning techniques.

The recent data for 2021 have indicated 47 Fellows, 1800 Students, and 230 Alumni members in Ahmedabad.

Bengaluru

In the year 2015, Teach For India had its first cohort with 57 Fellows and 2,182 Students in Bengaluru.

In 2016, The community centers emerged. To solve contextual challenges, Fellows across the city set up community centers to facilitate additional learning time and Student-run community interventions.

The recent data for 2021 have indicated 120 Fellows, 3500 Students, and 270 Alumni members in Bengaluru.

Chennai

In 2012 Teach For India had its first cohort with 32 Fellows and 660 Students in Chennai.

In 2017, Teach For India focused on Student leadership opportunities in Chennai. Students visited NASA, participated in Young Entrepreneurs Academy and TEDx.

In 2018, Teach For India partnered up with the government of Tamil Nadu. The Alumni worked as consultants for the Tamil Nadu Education Department to develop the state Education Information Management System and Digital Content Platforms for all teachers and students in the state.

The recent numbers for 2021 show that there are 110 Fellows, 3600 Students, and 370 Alumni members in Chennai.

Delhi

In 2011, Teach For India had its first cohort in Delhi with 65 Fellows and 2000 students.

In the year 2016, 1000+ student leaders started driving change in the city. A Student leader Jyoti started project Gurukul inviting Students to conduct workshops in art and spoken word poetry for other students, hoping to build respect for arts and artists in the community.

By the year 2017, 30+ Delhi organizations were founded by Teach For India Alumni in the sectors of early childhood education and parent empowerment.

The recent numbers for 2021 have indicated 260 Fellows, 9000 Students, and 880 Alumni members in Delhi. Delhi is Teach For India's biggest regional operation.

Hyderabad

In 2012, Teach For India had its first cohort in the city of Hyderabad with 46 Fellows and 1800 Students.

In the years between 2014 and 2015, the Fellow Durbar was inaugurated. The Fellow Durbar initiative is an organic space for people to come together and share their experiences and is now an integral part of Teach For India's ecosystem across 7 cities.

The recent numbers for 2021 have indicated 87 Fellows, 3250 Students, and 430 Alumni members in Hyderabad.

Teach For India Model

Teach For India has a short term theory of change and a long term theory of change. In the short term, Teach For India follows a two-year Fellowship model. Their Fellows’ through the course of two years of teaching and working with key education stakeholders, are exposed to the realities of India's education system. The Fellows, in these years, cultivate the knowledge, skills, and mindsets required to achieve positions of leadership in and beyond education. In the long term theory of change, Fellows who graduate from the Fellowship join the Alumni movement.

The model for the Fellowship starts with a selective recruitment and selection process, followed by an ongoing teacher training and leadership development, after which Teach For India measures the impact of Students and the leadership growth of Fellows.

Each Fellow is assigned a classroom in one of Teach For India's placement cities to teach academics, values, mindsets and to give Students the access and exposure they require to reach their personal, long-term visions. Post-Fellowship, they join the Alumni movement that's working across various pathways for a more equitable India.

The long-term vision for Teach For India’s Fellows
  • The Commitment to Personal Transformation: Exploring who you are, your purpose, and striving to be a better person.
  • The Commitment to Collective Action: Building relationships and organizing partners to multiply and deepen our impact.
  • The Commitment to Educational Equity: Deepening our understanding of educational equity and committing to attaining it.

Fellows work on these commitments in and beyond the full-time lab of their classroom, where they relentlessly focus on moving their Students towards “path-changing” learning, the highest level of our Student Vision Scale. By growing in the 3 commitments, and embedded with real-life leadership experiences in the classroom and communities, Fellows are ready to be lifelong learners and leaders for greater impact on children.

In the next stage, Fellows either start their organizations or hold key positions of leadership, both within and beyond the education sector.

The Impact

Teach For India in a decade has seen more than 120,000 young people applying to the Fellowship Program. Currently, the non-profit organization has 900+ Fellows impacting over 3,2000 students in 260 under-resourced schools in India. They have 5,200 Student Alumni. Since Teach For India's inception, they have infused the system with more than 3,400+ Alumni who are running their own schools, organizations, training teachers, designing policy, and continuing to serve within classrooms, non-profits, and corporate institutions.[6]

The Teach For India Alumni is serving more than 33 million children; 1 in 10 Indian children is now reached by a Teach For India Alumni. More than 77% of their Alumni continue to serve in the social sector. A recent study shows that Teach For India's community has founded more than 150+ organizations.

Teach For India has built a national focus on repairing India's educational crisis through their Innovation Cell programs that equip teachers, students, and entrepreneurs to spark long-term change in education.[7] Through social and print media- Teach For India has garnered the support of thousands of people from a wide range of sectors, all of whom are invested in the vision of an excellent education for all children.[8]

Academic Impact

Teach For India has graduated 3 cohorts of 5,200 students from 10th grade in Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi till 2019 with a graduation rate that is consistently better than the Government schools’ average. Their 4th cohort graduated in 2020 with a passing rate of 94-98% across these three cities Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi.[9]

Math

Teach For India's students are learning to recall, apply knowledge and skills appropriate to their level. This has led to 36% grade-level mastery of Math at the end of the year versus 20% at the beginning of the year in 2018–19.

Reading Comprehension

Teach For India students showed a record of 0.6 years of growth in their reading level in 2018–19, achieving a higher level of reading.

Alumni

Notable Teach For India alumni
  • Ashish Srivastava, 2009 Cohort, Shiksharth
  • Aniket Thukral 2009 Cohort, Director of Programs, Global School Leaders
  • Daniel Lobo, 2009 Cohort, Director, Leaders’ Quest
  • Madhukar Banuri, 2009 Cohort, Leadership For Equity
  • Charag Krishnan, 2009 Cohort, Partner, McKinsey and Company
  • Yash Kumar, 2009 Cohort, GenYMedium
  • Gaurav Singh, 2009 Cohort, 321 Education Foundation
  • Rahul Gupta, 2009 Cohort, Pune Children's Zone
  • Namita Goel, 2009 Cohort, Lead School
  • Shalini Datta, 2010 Cohort, AfterTaste
  • Mayank Lodha, 2010 Cohort, KPMG India
  • Sriram Chemuturi, 2010 Cohort, Principal, Matshori English Medium School
  • Divya Behl, 2010 Cohort, Programme Manager, Global Schools Forum
  • Aniket Doegar, 2010 Cohort, co-founder and CEO, Haqdarshak
  • Kaushik Ananthanarayana, 2010 Cohort, Analytical Lead and Industry Manager, Google India
  • Nisha Subramaniam, 2010 Cohort, Kanavu
  • Alpana Mallick, 2011 Cohort, Director, Training and Impact, Teach For India
  • Lewitt Somarajan, 2011 Cohort, CEO, Life Lab
  • Jagnoor Grewal, 2011 Cohort, Punjab Civil Services, Govt. of Punjab
  • Kimberly Fernandes, 2011 Cohort, Joint Ph.D. in Human Development/Quantitative Methods (Education) and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
  • Kimberly Fernandes, 2011 Cohort, Ph.D. Candidate, Education (Human Development) and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
  • Hemakshi Meghani, 2011 Cohort, Indian School of Democracy
  • Arja Dayal, 2012 Cohort, Former Country Director of Sierra Leone and Liberia, Innovations for Poverty Action
  • Dipti Balwani, 2012 Cohort, Program Lead, Saturday Art Class; Transformational Teaching Fellowship Fellow
  • Aaditya Tiwari, 2012 Cohort, Officer on Special Duty to the CM of Arunachal Pradesh
  • Nathaniel Seelan, 2013 Cohort, ASL, Vidyaniketan, Chennai
  • Ankita Nayak, 2013 Cohort, JP Morgan and Chase
  • Jasmine Sachdev, 2013 Cohort, Shiv Nadar School, Aagaaz Theatre Trust
  • Sarthak Satapathy, 2013 Cohort, Former Team Lead, DIKSHA-PMU, Central Square Foundation
  • Anurag Kundu, 2013 Cohort, Senior Officer, Govt. of Delhi
  • Jasmeet Walia, 2013 Cohort, Creatnet Education
  • Priyanka Agrawal, 2013 Cohort, Engagement Manager, McKinsey and Company
  • Ananya Shekar, 2013 Cohort, Thrive Foundation
  • Varun Prasad, 2013 Cohort, For A Smarter Tomorrow Foundation
  • Pooja Chopra, 2013 Cohort, Khwaab
  • Abhiram Natarajan, 2014 Cohort, Lead, 1M1B
  • Mahesh Medlari, 2014 Cohort, People & Culture, Openhouse
  • Aditya Krishnan, 2014 Cohort, Teach For India
  • Kushal Dattani, 2014 Cohort, Founder, Samait Shala
  • Hari Haran, 2014 Cohort, MBA, INSEAD
  • Rahul Balakrishnan, 2014 Cohort, co-founder, Arthan
  • Dhruv Gupta, 2014 Cohort, Consultant - Global Education Practice, The World Bank
  • Surabhi Venkatesh, 2014 Cohort, Director, People & Culture, Heads Up For Tails
  • Prasanna Sundaram, 2014 Cohort, Augmented Understanding
  • Piyush Gupta, 2015 Cohort, Manager, Policy Support, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
  • Sharmili Phulgirkar, 2015 Cohort, Vice President, Citi, Singapore
  • Shefali Mishra, 2015 Cohort, Manager, Partnerships, Harappa Education
  • Ramya Krishnan, 2015 Cohort, Team Lead, Central Square Foundation
  • Tanvi Metre, 2015 Cohort, Founding Team Member and Manager, iTeach Schools
  • Jahnavi Reddy, 2015 Cohort, The News Minute
  • Mrinalika Rathore Project Lead, Sashaktikaran Foundation, 2015 Cohort
  • Aaran Patel, 2015 Cohort, Master of Public Policy, Social and Urban Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Leena Bhattacharya, 2015 Cohort, Ph.D. in economics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai
  • Ankita Nawalakha, 2015 Cohort, The New Education Project
  • Abhijit Thakur, 2016 Cohort, MBA, Indian School of Business
  • Leeja Pillai, 2016 Cohort, Campaign Strategy, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC)
  • Satyam Gupta, 2016 Cohort, untangle
  • Sruti Sriram, 2016 Cohort, Teacher, Avasara Academy
  • Vishal Sharma, 2016 Cohort, Founder, SMILES in Life Foundation
  • Atul Sahu, 2016 Cohort, General Manager, Aditya Birla Chemicals
  • Ashutosh Gharde, 2016 Cohort, Founding Member and Director, OpenLinks Foundation
  • Ketaki Patil, 2016 Cohort, Ummeed
  • Sana Sohoni, 2017 Cohort, Avasara Academy
  • Benoy Stephen, 2016 Cohort, Y-Ultimate
  • Alamelu Kathiresan, 2016 Cohort, Math Love
  • Vatsala Misra Sharma, 2017 Cohort, Masters of Education in Human Development and Psychology, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • Manu Gupta, 2017 Cohort, MBA, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
  • Shekar Hariharan, 2017 Cohort, Founder, Shifting Orbits Foundation
  • Shreya Krishnan, 2017 Cohort, co-founder, The Better Design Foundation
  • Sivaram Renganathan, 2017 Cohort, City Director, Reap Benefit
  • Sneha Shetty, 2017 Cohort, Avasara Academy
  • Sowmya Lakshminarayanan, 2017 Cohort, Founder, Lead by Design
  • Shitanshu Maurya, 2017 Cohort, Business Analyst, Egon Zehnder

References
  1. "Teach For All". teachforall.org. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. "Home | TeachforIndia". www.teachforindia.org. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  3. "Invest in teacher training for better quality of education: TFI chairperson". The Indian Express. 29 July 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  4. "Teach For India now reaches Kolkata". The Times of India. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
  5. "The Crisis | TeachforIndia". www.teachforindia.org. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  6. Building leadership skills in women: Teach for India, archived from the original on 20 December 2021, retrieved 11 March 2021
  7. Gupta, Boshika (18 March 2020). "How Indian Educators Are Teaching Students Amid the Coronavirus Shut Down". Re:Set. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  8. "In 4 Years, 31-YO Helps 3 Lakh Needy People Avail Government Schemes Worth Crores". The Better India. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  9. "Dia Mirza teaches kids key ideas on environment protection - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
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