The Covid-19 catastrophe 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 grass-root level in education by engaging promising individuals to serve as full-time teachers to the children from low-income, urban communities.

Teach For India will induct its 2021 cohort into the Fellowship today. 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.

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