How Teach For India Is Helping Millions Realize One Dream At A Time

We are all very familiar with the phrase “dream big.” It’s a phrase that we tell kids to encourage them to pursue their dreams and not be afraid of what they might face. But for many children in India, that dream is nearly impossible due to inadequate education. Teach For India strives to change this by giving millions of children access to quality education while also tackling poverty in India. 

In this article, we will learn more about the fantastic people who have realized their potential with the help of the leadership-focused fellowship program provided by tech for India.

An Overview Of Tech For India

Teach For India was founded in 2008 by five recent graduates from Ivy League universities, including two Teach For America alumni and three Indian nationals who had been educated abroad. Together they set out to transform the lives of children living in poverty by making education accessible and creating sustainable change within communities. Their network has grown to reach more than 250 schools across 16 states, with over 50,000 students enrolled each year in just eight years. 

With such impressive numbers, it’s no wonder that they’ve already made an impression on many young minds, but what sets them apart is that these are not low-income kids – they’re high achievers from middle-class families as well. 

The Story Of Priyanka

It seems unbelievable that a girl from a damaged family, having her father in prison for murder, has survived extending her wings and chasing her ambition for theatre with the Maya Musical journey in the face of such obstacles. Priyanka’s life has paralleled her passion for theatre and the arts. Her first encounter with formal schooling was through a Teach For India (TFI)-sponsored broadway production. This event opened the door for her to reach the international stage. 

She came to the United World College of Adriatic from Italy to study and is now on the journey to Franklin and Marshall on a complete scholarship. Priyanka is one of the other children whose goals have come true owing to organizations such as Teach For India. With 6,000 fellows working across seven cities, an organization with a single purpose is revolutionizing how education works in India. 

The program has had a positive influence on 39,587 children. Teach For India (TFI) was founded in 2007 and initially implemented in 2009, and it has now become a successful model for education in India

The leadership model

TFI operates on a two-part approach to empower students outside of the class.

TFI encourages students and young professionals to serve as full-time instructors to children from low-income areas in some of India’s most under-resourced schools in the short term through the Fellowship program. Whereas, a two-year intensive classroom engagement exposes them to the realms of India’s education system: 76 % of students never progress to higher education; 52% of standard, five students are unable to read a standard two textbook; and 52 %, approximately 9 lakh teacher vacancies exist across primary and upper primary schools.

The journey, so far

Regarding the ten-year path, I believe what has worked exceptionally nicely is seeing that concept come to life. We were unsure about anything when we first started. Would individuals be interested in participating in the program? It’s a two-year commitment that might lead to a new life path later. Things, on the other hand, have started to fall into place. From an original batch of 87 “Niners” (freshmen) to over 1200 fellows this year, the young people are working tirelessly in the short term to transform the lives of students in their classrooms and to become change leaders themselves.

Empowerment beyond classroom

More than 1500 alumni are officially implicated in diverse education-related activities to achieve educational equity through long-term revolutionary change. They work in education as school administrators, teacher trainers, implementers, and professors and incorporate CSRs that focus on education.

Anurag Kundu, a 2013-15 batch member, is employed at the Delhi Commission for Child Rights. He and Indus Impact, a TFI alumnus-founded organization, are on a project to guarantee that the legal obligation of providing 25% reservation in private schools to students from different families is implemented in schools run by the North, South, and East Delhi Municipal Corporations (MCD).

Soumya Jain, a Pune resident, saw that after class 7, English medium government school students were without a school to go to. Due to a shortage of secondary education government schools, pupils had two options: dropping out of high school or paying for private school.

Amidst BYJU’S and Unacademy

ESense Learning, the tech arm of Navneet Education, a 60-year-old publishing house, converts educational course material into sound, pictorial, and visual effects formats for practical training. It now plans to expand from 4000 schools in two states to 10,000 schools nationwide. eSense Learning, firm Navneet Education, had to suspend operations when the epidemic opened the gates for ed-tech companies in India. 

The pandemic

As per Harshil, even though COVID-19 has shone a bright light on remote learning like never before, propelling India’s e-learning sector to new heights, last-mile training has suffered dramatically. eSense has been out of business during the initial shutdown, unlike other tech firms, but that worked out well as a time for product development and strategy to entice customers.

“Since the initial lockdown, there has been no learning in certain schools. Only around 500 out of 4000 clients have purchased Zoom or other video conferencing subscriptions.

Learning curve and revenue model

On a subscription basis, eSense provides schools with a bundle of subject matter, applications, and hardware such as laptops and projectors. It works with schools on a one-to-five-year subscription basis, with annual costs ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per school. eSense costs schools per student for applications like TOPScorer, and the fees vary. 

The company’s sales in FY20-21 fell considerably from Rs 21 crore in FY19-20 due to the pandemic. eSense now employs 350 people and plans to grow to 500 in the following year. a“The goal is to become India’s number one B2B solution supplier in three years and to grow to 10,000 schools from the current 4,000,” The firm wants to provide its platform and solutions to any teaching space, including schools.