Tag: Shaheen Mistri

Teach For India welcomes 650+ Fellows for its 2021 Fellowship

Delhi: The catastrophe of Covid-19 has disproportionately affected the Indian education system which largely depends on traditional classroom teaching. India’s poorest children have not been in classrooms for more than 15 months now. To build a better India, it is essential to address the educational inequity in the country.Teach For India has been working to repair the fractured education system, through the commitment of caring and responsible Indians’ who apply to a highly selective, two-year Fellowship.This year, 650+ Fellows (teachers) have agreed to stand up for India and show up for India’s children, by joining the 2021 cohort and leading the charge against educational inequity.

Since 2009, the organization has built one of the largest movements of committed and driven talent in the Indian development ecosystem to address the challenge of educational inequity in India. The Teach For India Fellowship is an opportunity to create lasting change at the grassroot level in education by engaging promising individuals to serve as full-time teachers to the children from low-income, urban communities.

On 14 June 2021, Teach For India will induct its 2021 cohort into the Fellowship. Using the learnings of the past year of teaching digitally, we will equip our Fellows to maximise the opportunities of blended instruction. Through a balanced focus on skill, knowledge, mindset, community, and culture building, the Fellowship creates versatile and courageous leaders. Fellows will be trained to sustain challenges, unpredictability, and the ambiguity that accompanies the current education crisis.

Welcoming the new cohort, Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO, Teach For India commented, “Having the courage to join Teach For India – the courage to stand apart, to do what is different, to serve others – isn’t easy. In a year like this, where each one of us have struggles of our own to face – it is even harder. Thank you for having the courage to do this. Thank you for having the compassion to serve. Thank you for not just believing that all children deserve the opportunities to reach their greatest potential – but for getting up and doing something about it. We can’t wait to see you in this movement!”.

Today, the organization is proud to have 900 Fellows teaching in 260 under-resourced schools across 7 cities in India. The growing movement of 4000+ Alumni work at all levels of the education system, from leading change in the education and social sector to pioneering transformation in governance and in the private sector.

“I used to enjoy my short walk from the bus stop to my hostel. But suddenly that walk turned out to be really disturbing. The sight of some children working near the railway track shook me. The socioeconomic situations of those children had closed the door of education and schooling. But now I am really curious to start my journey and wipe out this evil of education inequity. I want to be able to proudly say that I have created a ripple. ” said Maria Rojas, BA Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Teach For India, 2021 Cohort

About Teach For India –

Teach For India’s Fellowship places outstanding working professionals and college graduates as Fellows – who work full-time as teachers for two-years in low-income and under-resourced schools. With operations in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore. Teach For India has over 900 Fellows impacting more than 32,000 children across the country. Post the Fellowship, they join a growing movement of over 4000+ Alumni working at all levels of the education sector. A part of the global Teach For All network of 60 countries, with a shared vision of an excellent education for all children, Teach For India’s mission is to end educational inequity in India by creating a strong pipeline of driven, skilled talent within the educational ecosystem. https://www.teachforindia.org/

Teach For India’s ‘Don’t Stop Learning’ campaign aims to make digital learning more accessible to Teach For India students

Hyderabad: Shivashankari studies in Grade 9 at GHS Kadapaswamy Mutt School in Bangalore, her mother is a single parent. When the lockdown was announced, Shivashankari didn’t have access to a device to continue learning. Initially, she would use her cousin’s phone which she could use only in the evenings, to keep in touch with her teacher. But Shivshankari was so keen on learning, that she pleaded with her teacher to shift the classes to the evening so that she could attend them too. Today, she attends 4 hours of classes on Zoom and submits her homework via a dedicated learning tablet provided by Teach For India in October. Shivashankari’s story is one of many childrens’ in the country.

India’s children have been the most affected during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. They have been more exposed to isolation, homelessness, medical emergencies, violence and stress. Their safe space of a classroom has been suddenly replaced by added responsibilities since March 2020. Since the lockdown started, Teach For India has been helping Students find solutions to continue their learning and education. Right from sending worksheets to print stores close to Students’ houses, to creating WhatsApp groups with parents and holding Zoom Parent Teacher meetings, learning has not stopped.

Teach For India’s immediate goal for the #DontStopLearning campaign is to raise funds for students who need learning devices to continue their education from home.

Talking about the campaign Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO of Teach For India said “By working with the most vulnerable populations, our country’s children were already at great risk. Now, with even less resources, children are being pushed further into poverty for no fault of their own.

Blended learning is becoming the new normal and now more than ever, children need access to digital devices.”

Quote from a parent: “Thank you Teach For India, for giving my kids a tab to learn and helping other kids as well. Now they are attending all online classes. I sincerely hope, just like my kids did, all the children who don’t have access to a mobile phone get help from you so that they can also enjoy online learning.”