My first interaction and experience with Teach for India - Fellows

My first interaction and experience with Teach for India - Fellows

As Part of our Mindtree IGK project, we visited one of the government schools near Naindali,Bangalore on 8/Sep, we were 5 from Mindtree  reached the school well before the scheduled time 2 PM. 

We met 3 young fellows from Teach for India, we were asked to interact with the 3rd and 4th class elementary students. 2 of us sat in 4th standard class room and other 3 were in 3rd standard class room. 

I just sat in the class room on the floor with 4th standard students. The below are my observations from 2 hour trip/interaction

1. 2 gentle men from Teach for India interacting with students in English, the efforts they put in compelling every student to talk in English was really encouraging 

2. Teach for India fellowship program is for 2 years work in one of the Govt schools, it is their 2nd year in the same school where they started with 3rd std students and now they are in 4th std. 

3. I am from outsider can see the difference in class 4 students, the impact of these fellows created in the last 1 year.

4. They have a tie up with Apple where they were given computer and ipad, they installed few interactive education games, help each student understand the problem and solution 

5. Fellows were closely watching everyone, other than academics they do teach other disciplinary. How to encourage other students, help other students when they don't know something

6. Impressed to see almost all the students in the class be able to do basic arithmetic, hardly 1 or 2 students did wrong in basic arithmetic.

7. They were all able to follow basic English conversation, this was the impact of Teach for India fellows created...They force the students to use small english words and sentences in the class

Other than academics, the brief of activities each fellow involve, these are just few from my interaction....

1. All these fellows are graduated from reputed engineering colleges, some of them take sabbatical from corporate to be part of the program 

2. These fellows undergo 1 month rigorous training in Teach for India - Pune branch before they are placed in any govt schools. 

3. There is no content or curriculum been shared to fellows, rather it is completely left it to fellows to prepare and share

4. The fellows are paid very nominal incentive by Teach for India every month, the fellows use their own fund for taking xeroxes,print outs etc from their own pocket 

5. Other than just education, the fellows do take care of school logistics or infrastructure issues. The school i visited, they did take care of fixing grills on the slab, ensured the cleanliness of the environment, play ground to be maintained well 

6. Every week they interact with  parents, they do visit their homes to maintain in case parents don't turn up..They do interact with local citizens, take their helps and support

7. There are volunteers come on every Saturday to extend their support

8. These classes won't overlap with academics, they pick subjects like Art, Maths, English which is outside of syllabus

Summary

• Really heart touching to see the system is working so well with no major follow-ups and tracking from Teach for India Sr. Management.

• What these fellows are doing is completely outside of the box, collaborating with govt teachers and management. I observed, it is working under the hard condition.

• Very simple principle of bringing Parents, Students and Teachers together, building trust on each other. These guys are able to achieve it. 

• We all must thank Teach for India for the change they are trying to bring in, it is not easy. 

• I have seen many NGOs try support the system from outside, the impact of this is very minimal. The change that TeachforIndia is bringing in being part of the system,introducing competent fellows in the system to bring in high impact..

Please do visit their website, spread the news  ... www.teachforindia.org