Who We Are

Teach For India is a nationwide movement that aims to narrow the education gap in India by placing India's most outstanding college graduates and young professionals, of all academic majors and career interests, in low-income schools to teach for two years. In the short run, Teach For India will provide a source of dedicated teachers who will work tirelessly to expand, in a measurable way, the educational opportunities available to hundreds of thousands of India's most underprivileged children. In the long run, Teach For India will aim to build a powerful and ever-growing leadership force of alumni who, informed by their experiences and insights, will work from inside and outside of education to effect fundamental, long-term changes necessary to ultimately realize educational opportunity for all.

In its launch year, Teach For India has placed 87 Fellows in schools in Mumbai and Pune. By its fifth year, Teach For India will aim to place increasing numbers of Fellows in eight metropolitan cities and rural areas in surrounding 4-5 districts. Fellows will be recruited largely from the top 25 undergraduate institutions in each field of study based on a rigorous selection process that will test, among other things, critical thinking skills, perseverance and ability to influence/motivate others. Fellows will be placed in low-income primary and upper primary, English medium schools (mainly government and some low-end private schools), to improve both academic achievement and retention rates in high-need urban and rural areas.

Teach For India will provide Fellows with a variety of support structures to ensure that Fellows feel safe, looked after and meet their ambitious goals throughout their two-year teaching period.

Mentor Support

For the entirety of the 2-year Fellowship, Fellows will have a Teach For India Program Associate, at a ratio of approximately 10 Fellows per Program Associate, whose main responsibility is ensure that the Fellows build skills and maintain energy to reach their classroom and community project goals. Program Associate will continuously visit classrooms and meet with Fellows to develop plans and troubleshoot challenges.

Pre-Service Training

Before entering the classroom, Teach For India will bring all Fellows together for a residential, full-time pre-service training Institute, where we will teach them the keys to excellent teaching and leading. The Institute will also give them the opportunity to build personal and professional relationships with all Teach For India Fellows, who have diverse academic and professional backgrounds, a common history of success and a unifying commitment to ending educational inequity.

In-Service Training

Excellent teachers and leaders build new skills by learning a new practice, implementing it, reflecting on the implementation, and taking steps to improve the practice immediately. During the first month of teaching, Teach For India will provide intensive, structured support to enable Fellows to build their skills quickly and effectively while they are practicing them in the classroom. In the evenings and weekends, they will attend workshops to learn new skills, and a Teach For India staff member will visit them and their students multiple times a week to help them improve their practice.

Formal Reviews

Once a quarter, Fellows will meet with their Program Associates, Training Managers and City Directors to formally review their performance against goals and set targets for improvement for the next quarter. Once a year, they will receive a 360 review, taking into account their students' results and input from the administration at their school, their students, and Teach For India staff members. At the end of the two year-Fellowship, they will give a formal presentation to Teach For India.

The Leadership Forum

On an ongoing basis, Teach For India will invite prominent corporate, government social and education leaders to speak to Teach For India Fellows about their experience with leadership. Some of the leaders who have addressed our Fellows are Aamir Khan (Actor), Dr. Mashelkar (President, National Innovation Foundation and Indian National Science Academy), Nandita Das (Actor), Anu Aga (Former Executive Chairperson, Thermax Group and Director, Thermax Social Initiatives), Wendy Kopp (Founder, Teach For America), Kiran Sethi (Founder, Riverside School), Aditya Natraj (Founder, Gandhi Fellowship), Anand Shah (Founder, Indicorps), Roopal Shah (Founder, Indicorps), Nachiket Mor (President ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth) and Rahul Bose (Actor).

The Teach For India Network

The Fellows will have multiple opportunities to interact with each other, through in-service support workshops, the Leadership Forum, online networking, and social gatherings. They will be a critical source of motivation and support for each other.

Teach For India is also in the process of creating a Parents Network for parents interested in supporting our Fellows and Teach For India's mission.

Future Career Prospects

Teach For India will give Fellows the skills necessary to succeed in any career, and will connect them with opportunities and networks to enable them to enter the career of their choice afterward.

By teaching for two-years in a high-needs school, Fellows will quickly build project management, motivational and communication skills, which are skills that are highly-valued across sectors.

Additionally, the Teach For India's Alumni Services will help Fellows learn about and apply to jobs in their intended sectors, such as education, banking, journalism, consulting or social work. Many top organizations in all sectors will actively recruit Teach For India Fellows during the second year of the Fellowship.