This year’s graduating cohort of 403 from Teach For India fellowship enter the Teach For India’s Alumni movement. According to Payoshni Saraf, Director of Alumni Impact, this cohort redefined their Fellowship in the initial months of the pandemic to work on providing relief packages to communities affected, fundraised for struggling low income schools, supported government school teachers to migrate to online classes and helped with health care access for their students and families affected by the pandemic. Over 80% of the cohort will continue to work in the education sector, a majority of them serving children from under-resourced communities.
“In the last year, our Fellows brought children back to online schools while access to devices and the internet remains a challenge. Not only did they teach online but also raised relief materials for their students and their families. More than ever, they kept the wellbeing of their kids in mind as they increased learning time and found them gadgets to learn on,” she adds.
“The Fellowship helped me learn from 52 Students individually. Overnight, I became something the world hadn’t seen before – an online educator,” says Aniket Aich, 2019 Delhi Cohort. He taught at Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Janakpuri and will go on to work with Pratham Education Foundation this year. Prior to the Fellowship, he graduated from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati where his research was on out-of-school children. Working in the field gave him an inside perspective into the education inequity problem in India which motivated him to join the Fellowship.
Teach For India Alumni are reaching more than 33 million children – that’s 1 in 10 children in India – at various levels of the system from schools, communities to governance and policy – level initiatives. More than 77% of the Alumni continue to serve in the social sector, a commitment that is fuelled by belief: more than 90% of them are convinced that India’s children can receive an excellent education.
“After 22 years as a leader in the corporate world, the Fellowship gave me an invaluable opportunity to apply my skills, and share them with grassroot level educationists, to make a tangible human impact. I believe that if more white collar executives take such sabbaticals, India will appreciably accelerate its journey towards excellent education for all.” – Anissha Aggarwal, Former Country Head, Enterprise PR and Communications, Microsoft India. Anissha taught English and Social Sciences to Grades 7 and 8 Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya No.2 Mehrauli, Delhi.
“Teach For India is a powerful movement of empathetic, committed, passionate, leaders who are grounded in the realities of the lives of their communities. Being a part of Teach For India is character-forming, it seems like a rite of passage for those who wish to contribute or build a career in public service. We already see the impact of a decade of Teach For India in various organizations across the development sector and beyond. May this tribe increase,” Adds Anu Prasad, Founder, Director, India Leaders for Social Sector.
