CHENNAI: Teach for India (TFI), a nationwide movement that seeks to help needy students by getting altruistic college graduates and professionals to teach in low-income schools, will launch its Fellowship Programme in Chennai next year. The organisation is looking to recruit approximately 75 fellows to teach in 30 under-resourced schools across the city as full-time class teachers for a period of two years. “We are in the process of identifying those schools that will require our help. We’ve got in touch with a few private schools and will soon get in touch with a few government schools as well,” says Chaitali Sheth, Director, Expansion, TFI. The movement is looking to help those schools that charge less than `300 as fees and have a shortage of staff. The fellows, who will teach all subjects to the students, will aim to improve the grade levels of the students by 1.5 years on an average in comprehension, reading fluency, math, grammar and writing, in a span of two years. “We assess the grade levels of the students in these schools and we often find that they fall short,” explains Nikita Merchant, Communications Associate, TFI. “The main aim of the movement is to eliminate inequity in education in India,” she adds.The model of TFI is in such a manner that they invest their resources in one batch of students completely. For instance, they began with a primary level class in 2009. As the next batch of fellows take over, they handle the same class in their next grade. This way, at the end of their primary education, students would be in a position to catch up with students of other schools academically. Through the programme, fellows have been able to increase the student attendance to 89 per cent from 81 per cent in the schools they’ve been teaching. Over half of their students have also scored 80 per cent or higher in their Class 12 exams, with 1 in 4 scoring above 90 per cent. At the end of the two years, the fellows will have access to a job fair. During their teaching period, they will also be paid `15,000 per month and will participate in a community project which will address some of the barriers to student achievement, which indirectly influence their academic lives. A candidate must be a graduate in any discipline to be able to apply for the fellowship. Apart from this, TFI also looks for other qualities during recruitment. “The candidate must have a good attitude, leadership qualities and the ability to teach,” says Nikita. Apart from the initial application process, there will also be a telephonic interview, group discussion and personal interview in the selection process. TFI, which began in 2009, had only one mission and that is ‘One day, all children will have access to excellent education’. The movement now has a total of 373 fellows till date, teaching over 10,437 students in 123 schools across the country. “Personally for me, this has been a journey of personal transformation. I was here to empower the children, and I am going back as an empowered person and a life-long learner, thanks to the purity of the children,” says Saurabh Taneja, a recent TFI graduate. The application deadline for TFI’s 2012 Fellowship Programme is October 16. For more details, visit www.teachforindia.org.
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