When and how can I apply to the Teach For India Fellowship?
Please click here to read through the details of the Teach For India application and selection process. You will find information on the timelines and the do’s and don’ts here.
Why should I join Teach For India?
Teach For India offers you the chance to make a real difference in tackling one of India’s most pressing challenges — educational inequity. By presenting you with one of the most difficult challenges of your life, the Fellowship will help you develop leadership skills that are critical in today’s dynamic and fast-changing global work environment. You will leave the Fellowship literally ready for anything and with the experience to advocate for a future in which all children have access to an excellent education.
Who are we looking for?
Teach For India is looking for Fellows who have exhibited academic excellence, have demonstrated leadership, and are inclined to make a commitment to the community. Students in their final year of under-graduate or post-graduate studies and young professionals are eligible to apply. Please click here to go through all the eligibility criteria in detail.
What does the Teach For India Fellowship entail?
The Teach For India Fellowship is a two-year paid assignment during which Fellows are placed as full-time class teachers in low-income schools. Throughout the Fellowship, Teach For India Fellows help close the achievement gap by leading their students to significant academic gains. In the second year of the Fellowship, Fellows implement a school-wide project to address one major obstacle to learning in their community.
Why does the Fellowship last two years? Can I teach for just one year if I choose?
All Fellows must commit to teach full-time for two years in low-income schools. The two-year commitment is necessary to make the impact we wish to have on student achievement. In the first year, Fellows will refine their teaching skills and will start to establish respect and trust among various stakeholders within the school community, such as the Principal, co-teachers, parents and of course, the students themselves. This work will allow Fellows to achieve significant academic gains for students and to implement their community/school project in the second year. Furthermore, Teach For India is looking for leaders who are willing to commit to long-term change and who have the perseverance to work hard in challenging situations. In this context, the two-year commitment is but a small step towards long-term reform.
How many Fellows does Teach For India currently have?
The Teach For India movement started in 2009 with 87 Fellows teaching in 35 schools across Mumbai and Pune. In its second year (2010), 137 Fellows joined the movement and began teaching in 65 schools across Mumbai in Pune. In 2011, Teach For India added Delhi to its list of placement cities and selected 250 Fellows to teach in 130 schools across Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. Today, Teach For India Fellows are teaching approximately 12,000 children in these three cities.
For 2012, we are seeking 450 Fellows to teach in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. The Teach For India movement is fast gaining momentum among the youth across the country. In the next five years, we aspire to teach 65,000 children across 10 cities.
What are the profiles of Teach For India Fellows?
Teach For India Fellows make a very diverse group of people, brought together by their past achievements and their passion to eliminate educational inequity. They hail from all backgrounds of study and work and range between 20 and 35 years of age. They come from a wide range of colleges such as IITs, IIMs, St.Stephen’s, St.Xavier’s, Christ University, Presidency College etc and companies such as Accenture, McKinskey, Mahindra & Mahindra, IBM, Ernst & Young, Schlumberger etc. By joining the Fellowship, you will get an opportunity to work with some of the brightest and most enterprising brains of the country.
Out of our current cohort, about 41% are Young Professionals, 35% are Undergraduates and 12% each of Experienced Professionals and Post Graduates.
How does Teach For India’s approach to teaching differ from traditional approaches?
Teach For India’s “Teaching As Leadership” (TAL) model is based on the belief that excellent teachers employ the same skills as excellent leaders in any field. The TAL model requires teachers to plan purposefully, execute effectively, work relentlessly and reflect continuously in order to push students to significant academic gains. Through the TAL model, Fellows become extraordinary leaders who can help their students make significant academic gains in the short run and advocate for systemic educational reform in the long run.
Which standard will I be teaching and what will be the medium of instruction?
Teach For India Fellows are placed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th standard classrooms where they teach all major subjects — including English, Mathematics, Reading, History and Science — with the exception of regional languages. English is the medium of instruction in all Teach For India schools and Fellows are not expected to know their students’ mother tongues.
Where will I be teaching?
In 2012, Teach For India Fellows will be placed in low-income schools in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. All Fellows will be required to reside in one of these cities between June 2012 and April 2014. If you are unable to do so, please note that we will expand into more cities in the upcoming years, and hope to be in ten cities and their surrounding rural areas within the next five years.
Will I be trained adequately before I start teaching?
Teach For India will work relentlessly to ensure that all Fellows have the knowledge and skills necessary to lead their students towards achievement. The Teach For India Fellowship begins with a five-week Institute in May or June of 2012 that helps Fellows understand curriculum, create long-term plans as well as lesson plans, present content to students in a clear and engaging way, facilitate student practice and assess student progress, among other keys to successful teaching. Additionally, each Fellow will have a mentor in the form of a Program Manager whose primary responsibility is to guide Fellows to become effective teachers and leaders. Please click here to get more information on our Institute and continuous training.
How much will I be paid during the Fellowship?
Teach For India Fellows will be paid a stipend of Rs. 16,000 per month. If required to relocate from their home city, Fellows will be given a housing allowance ranging from Rs.6,500 to Rs.8,000, depending on the city in which they will stay. In addition, Fellows will receive an allowance for school supplies.
How will the Teach For India experience help me grow professionally?
Teach For India strongly believes that excellent teachers employ the same skills as excellent leaders in any field, and that spending two years in the classroom will help Fellows develop leadership skills, such as organization, communication, problem-solving in an unstructured environment, people management and resourcefulness, that are valuable in any sector. Teach For India will select Fellows who have demonstrated excellence in the past and will work with them throughout the two-year Fellowship to ensure that they take advantage of the experience to become extraordinary future leaders.
What options will be open to me after the Fellowship?
Teach For India’s first batch of Fellows graduated in April 2011. The 80 alumni are now spread all over the country and abroad in jobs ranging from consulting to education startups; and as students in top universities such as Harvard, Cornell, Chicago Booth and Columbia. Teach For India supports its Fellows to pursue their individual career interests by training and mentoring them and striving to build relationships with top schools, universities, NGOs, and corporates throughout the country. Teach For India has already established close ties with HDFC, Godrej Industries, Harvard Business School, IIM Bangalore, the Indian School of Business, McKinsey & Company, Tata Consultancy Services, Columbia Law School, Ernst & Young and the Thermax Group, among many others. Please visit to know about our alumni in detail.
As the experience of Teach For America alumni shows, Teach For India alumni will be in high demand in any sector because they have the experience of overcoming immense challenges and have developed widely applicable leadership skills. Teach For America today has 20,000 alumni, several of whom have started their own groups of schools or work in the field of policy-making for education reforms.
If I can’t apply to the Fellowship now, can I apply at a later date?
Teach For India will accept applications for the Fellowship every year. If you are unable to consider joining the 2012 Fellowship, we welcome you to consider applying for the Fellowship in the subsequent years. However, before making the decision, please write to us apply@teachforindia.org and we would be glad to address your concerns and see if we can make it work for the 2012 Fellowship.
For questions on the Application Form and Selection process, please see Admission & Application FAQs
Please email us at apply@teachforindia.org if you have additional queries.
