Educate 32000 underserved children in India

As we celebrate 15 years of transformative change to the education system, we are taking a moment to reflect on our progress and recognize YOU - our generous supporters that have made this impact possible! Your unwavering belief in our mission of ensuring educational equity for all children in India allows us to empower the next generation of education leaders and pave the way for a brighter future for all children in India. 

Since the last report, we have made positive strides on every dimension required for each child to #dreambigger irrespective of their financial background. As you review the below updates, we hope you walk away with immense pride at the change you are catalyzing in ensuring excellent education for low-income children in India, over 50 million of whom survive on less than $2.50 per day. Thanks to YOUR support, our evidence of success continues to grow, and together, we are helping these children break free from the cycle of intergenerational poverty. 

Driving Excellent Academic Outcomes

Under-resourced schools see significantly adverse academic performance, where despite 98% enrollment, less than 25% of low-income children in grade 5 can read basic English sentences or solve simple division problems in grade 8. Based on a study done by Columbia University, we are happy to report that children in TFI classrooms perform 5X better in English and 2X better in Math. 

Thanks to the hard work of TFI Fellows, we are seeing recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and academic outcomes have significantly improved over the last 2 years across TFI students in grades 1-8:

• 84% of students are functionally literate. 41% of them can read at their grade level (+11% from 2022)
• ~80% of students have shown expected growth in reading, which is the highest since 2016.
• 90% of elementary students are at or near their grade level in English (+14% from 2022).
• 82% of students passed math curriculum (+17% from 2022) with 46% of them passing with first class distinction.
• 90%+ of students are meeting the minimum bar on ‘leading others’ (+10% from 2022).

Additionally, 92% of our grade 10 students passed in the 1st attempt for their first major standardized testing milestone, with over 50% of the 1,700 students achieving first class distinction. 

Developing Exceptional Teachers and Education Leaders for Ed-equity

This year we welcomed our second largest cohort of fellows (teachers) ever, adding 630+ passionate individuals that were selected after a rigorous recruitment process with less than 8% acceptance rate. The 1000+ TFI fellows across the 2-year program will be reaching 32,000 low-income children annually in highly under-resourced schools across eight cities - Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. They will strengthen their skills through focused intensives like the TFI Summer Institute and the 'Be the Change' Community project, which not only helps them learn and practice innovative teaching methods, but focuses on empathy, emotional intelligence and the resilience required to empower low-income children coming from extreme poverty, malnutrition, trauma and abuse.  

The strength of the Fellowship is evident in 23 of former TFI classroom students who are joining as TFI Fellows in the 2024 cohort, coming full circle in their journey of change. Additionally, of the ~400 TFI Fellows graduating from the 2022-2024 cohort, 98% will continue within the social and education sectors. 

We now have a thriving alumni community of 5000+ fellows driving innovation and educational equity across all layers of the education system in India and beyond. TFI’s Alumni movement was highlighted in Teach For All’s global report (pages 98-107) as a case study of driving impact through collective action.

Inspiring The Next Generation of Leaders

TFI focuses on holistic development beyond academic performance, centering our education around the principles of leading self, leading others and leading India.  We have seen notable examples of these principles in countless students, a few of whom are highlighted below. 

Leading Self: Saranya, a 12-year-old from Chennai wrote and published her first book, “A Good Boy”, the tale of a timid child, constantly bullied and overlooked, who seeks solace in his faith. Her project inspired Karthik to write and publish his own book, “Pink World”, which sheds light on the persisting discrimination prevalent in our world.

Leading Others: Abdul, a Grade 9 visually impaired student from Ahmedabad wants to create an equitable system for his friends by making technology accessible to all. Abdul's disability did not curb his curiosity to learn, instead, it fueled his vision to learn coding and programming independently. Abdul conducts computer workshops for his schoolmates and has also created an international community of like-minded technology enthusiasts to learn and grow collaboratively!

Leading India: Tushar is a Grade 12 student from Delhi. He runs project Akriti that works on spreading the awareness of Indian classical art forms in different Teach for India classrooms. They have ideated a fellowship for students between grades 6-12 where participants can collaborate with Indian artists working in Indian classical art forms. The fellowship aims to provide a deep understanding of these art forms while fostering leadership qualities in students.

Bringing Real-World Leaders to the classroom: In September, TFI hosted Leaders Week which brought over 220 industry and government leaders into the classrooms, where they taught and led with love. These leaders not only witnessed the magic of a Teach For India classroom firsthand, but also shared valuable real-world lessons with students and Fellows, helping to shape the leaders of tomorrow. Participants included prominent figures like Narayan Murthy (Founder, Infosys), Shereen Bhan (Managing Editor, CNBC-TV18), and Varun Grover (writer, author, filmmaker), alongside Teach For India alumni such as Anurag Kundu (Punjab Development Commission), Tanvi Jindal (founder, Museum of Solutions), and Soumya Jain (founder, iTeach schools).

Links:

• Sign up for our Newsletter
• Follow us on Instagram
• Follow us on LinkedIn