Teach For India (TFI) is a non-profit founded by Shaheen Mistri in 2009. It is a part of the Teach For All network. Teach For India runs a two-year Fellowship and supports an Alumni movement. The Fellowship recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full-time teachers in low-income schools for two years. The mission of Teach For India is “one day all children will attain an excellent education.”
History
In 2006, the founder of Teach For India Shaheen Mistri, 17 years after starting the Akanksha Foundation felt compelled to address the issue of educational inequity at a larger scale. She believed that the solution was a people's movement that needed to come in unison to provide every Indian child with an outstanding education.
In 2007, Shaheen Mistri met with Wendy Kopp, the Founder of Teach For America, and the ideation process to keep ‘leadership’ at the core was ignited.
In 2009, Teach For India welcomed the first cohort, the Class of 2009, to the Fellowship. The 87 ‘Niners’ formed the beginning of a nationwide movement of diverse leaders.
In 2011, two years later, the Niners graduated from the Fellowship and became the first cohort in Teach For India's Alumni movement. The first cohort of Alumni then went on to work in several pathways such as teaching, teacher training, school leadership, and government policy solving the complex problem of educational equity.
Today, Teach For India has 900 Fellows working relentlessly to change the lives of Students in their classrooms and have become leaders driving change. Now, the organization has over 3400 Alumni who are collectively fuelling the larger movement towards their vision.
Geographical Reach
Mumbai
In the year 2009, the first cohort of the Teach For India Fellowship began in Mumbai and Pune with 87 Fellows. In 2011, they graduated with 46 Fellows and 1122 Students.
In the year 2015, The Alumni movement grew bigger. The city of Mumbai started to steadily grow its Alumni network from 43 Alumni in 2011 to 280 in 2015. ‘321’ was Mumbai's first Alumni led organization.
In the year 2020, Teach For India Mumbai collaborated with MCGM. Teach For India's partnership with the government evolved over the years from being a mere service provider to reaching out to Teach for India for advice and collaborating on projects like training MCGM staff, Student Advisory Council, and best practice sharing.
The recent numbers for 2021 shows that 144 Fellows, 3500 Students, and 860 Alumni members are in the city of Mumbai.
Pune
In 2009, the first cohort began in Pune with 87 Fellows. In the year 2011, Pune's first cohort graduated with 32 Fellows and 1100 Students.
In 2018, Pune received Secondary Education Access to English-medium secondary classrooms, which was a huge challenge for Pune's kids. This issue was addressed through the PPP model partnerships with Aakanksha Foundation and iTeach Schools.
The recent numbers indicates that Pune has 145 Fellows, 6500 Students, and 840 Alumni members.
Ahmedabad
In the year 2014, Teach For India reached Ahmedabad and had its first cohort with 34 Fellows and 1,100 Students. The Samait Shala was founded by a 2014 Ahmedabad Fellow, Kushal Dattani. The organization, Samait Shala trains teachers directly to ensure that classrooms are inclusive of students who learn in different ways and at different paces.
In 2016, they started operations in 20 schools in Ahmedabad with 80 Fellows and 2,000 Students. The elementary Students in the state were known to outperform on every single metric when it came to the mastery of basic operations and reading. Teach For India was above the state and city averages for both the learning techniques.
The recent data for 2021 have indicated 47 Fellows, 1800 Students, and 230 Alumni members in Ahmedabad.
Bengaluru
In the year 2015, Teach For India had its first cohort with 57 Fellows and 2,182 Students in Bengaluru.
In 2016, The community centers emerged. To solve contextual challenges, Fellows across the city set up community centers to facilitate additional learning time and Student-run community interventions.
The recent data for 2021 have indicated 120 Fellows, 3500 Students, and 270 Alumni members in Bengaluru.
Chennai
In 2012 Teach For India had its first cohort with 32 Fellows and 660 Students in Chennai.
In 2017, Teach For India focused on Student leadership opportunities in Chennai. Students visited NASA, participated in Young Entrepreneurs Academy and TEDx.