Education India Project #21133

Transform the lives of 3200 children in Hyderabad

by Teach For India

Transform the lives of 3200 children in Hyderabad

Project Report | Aug 4, 2022
Hear from Shreya on working at the grassroot level

By Shiwani Singh | Associate Development

Storybooks collected through a book donation camp

Packed with wisdom gained over the last year and learnings from the various training spaces set up by Teach for India, guided by hope, humility, and colossal gratitude, I begin the final lap of my fellowship journey.

I teach English and Social Studies to a talented and curious bunch of one hundred and twenty students in Grade 8 at the Government High School, Rajbhavan, Hyderabad, Telangana. My vision for my students is to be fearless communicators and passionate learners, become self-learners, operate with compassion, curiosity, and critical thinking, and grow up to be conscious young leaders.

I think the current age of technology has offered an excellent opportunity to young learners. Access to the internet can broaden their horizons and take their learning to a whole new level altogether. With covid-19 becoming a regular part of our lives, it was essential to build fluidity to switch from online to offline learning, as per any ongoing situation. The last academic year saw continuous and frequent instances of shifts from online learning to offline learning. The first thing required in this situation was to set up class-wise WhatsApp groups and to connect with parents to spread the word. With the # don'tstoplearning initiative of Teach for India, several devices were handed out to students. We also supported them with internet recharges, ensuring their learning always continues. As a Literacy and Social Studies teacher, I also shared additional resources, homework, and pre-works for classes, such as watching specific content videos and sharing video links for various read-along of English stories in the WhatsApp groups for an enriched learning experience for my students.

The second year of the Fellowship brings massive scope for us fellows to grow and allows us to connect and problem-solve for our communities in the form of a Be The Change Project (B.T.C.P.). As a lawyer, I choose to work on spreading legal awareness, inculcating the spirit of brotherhood, demonstrating our constitutional norms of equality, liberty, and justice, and equipping them to take legal redressal measures. The primary beneficiaries of this project are the students. I plan to deliver relevant legal knowledge in a child-friendly way, such as concepts and information about privacy (valid for students as they have social media handles), child marriages (it is prevalent in some areas where my students come from), traffic norms, and other such content. I also intend to reach out to my former colleagues and peers from my legal profession and leverage them to create a wholesome experience for my students. Having won and also being runners-up at the 7.0 edition of the Halla Bol (a parliamentary-style debate), I saw a vast scope and starting sparks in my students towards choosing a legal career for themselves. My B.T.C.P. would further nudge them towards achieving this dream.

I walked in with a desire to give back to society and grow as a teacher. Teach for India provided me with that opportunity, and its rigorous and relevant training spaces equipped me with the skills required in my role. It also gave me a real insight into how the education sector works and enabled me to work at the grassroots level towards fulfilling my duties as a responsible citizen. Teaching my students has been nothing short of a joyful experience. I am humbled and motivated to teach them now, this being my final year with them. I am grateful for the love and appreciation showered upon me by my students, their parents, my peers, colleagues at the school such as senior teachers, Headmistress ma'am, and last but not least, Teach for India, as an organization itself. As I began my Fellowship, I had no doubt whatsoever about how meaningful this journey would be for me, and I have never been disappointed.

Shreya Singhal

Grade 8

Fellow Cohort 2021

G.H.S. Raj Bhavan, Hyderabad

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Apr 5, 2022
Leadership comes in all sizes

By Shiwani Singh | Associate, Development

One day in class, I was deeply moved when I saw a student who never spoke in the class leading a group discussion and facilitating peer-to-peer learning sessions. I vividly remember the day when I was sitting in the class with many students. It brought tears into my eyes when a student came to me and said, “ Bhaiyya, we are fortunate to have TFI teachers. I never spoke this much to any teacher as I speak to you; you provide us safe space and make us feel comfortable."
By January, it was time to evaluate and figure out different suitable career options for my students as they will transition from grade 10 this year. Initially, when I started a conversation about their plans, many students were unsure about the course they should enroll in for their intermediate study. So I started one-on-one discussions with my students and brought a few experts from different areas of expertise to help my students understand different career options. In a community where girls’ education is given less priority, I feel proud of one of my students, Farah, who has been shortlisted for UWC college, and the outcome is awaited. She will set an example and inspire other girls in the community in days to come. Due to the third wave, we had to transition to virtual classes in Hyderabad. However, the transition was smooth as we ensured 100 percent access to online classes by giving them devices and supporting them with recharges.
After teaching for over a year, I saw growth of at least 0.5 to 1 in reading comprehension levels and average growth of 14% in most of my students. One of the key highlights in the last few months is the student-led project in my school. My students started a project called CORE, where they began a dialogue around problems in their community. It inspired me how these students want to do something for their community. They facilitated a recent discussion around Hijab which showed me how my students evolved into leaders who are vocal and respect each other’s opinions. Leadership comes in all sizes.

Towards the end of my Fellowship, much learning came from my Be The Change Project, which I did to help foster student leadership in the community. I can also see visible shifts in the mindset and values of my students where they are willing to support each other and their community to the best of their capacities. I learned project management and planning skills, which will be very pertinent in my career.

Teach For India has been a life-changing experience for me. I have not only gained skills but also evolved as a leader. When I entered the Fellowship, I knew that there was a problem. However, now I understand the complexity of the problem and how deeply rooted education inequity is. During my Fellowship, I taught in three different schools. I worked closely with various stakeholders in the community. I initially thought that it would take years to eradicate inequity in education. However, now after being a part of the movement, I feel the day is very close when all students will attain an excellent education. I am thankful to Teach For India to allow every leader in the country to come together and work for a cause. Now I feel more prepared to take up the specific role in capacity building of teachers across schools and amplify my impact. I believe we can master any skill in the world but Teach For India helped me develop a mindset where I feel compassionate to help and inspire others which were only possible with the Fellowship experience.

Vikram Ramkisan Newra
Grade 10
Cohort 2020
Golden Jubilee English High School, Tadbun, Hyderabad

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Dec 7, 2021
Uplifting students & their community

By Shiwani Singh | Associate, Development

The Fellowship has been a tough but also very enriching experience. Teaching English, Biology, and Physics to ninety-five students in Grade Ten and taking up additional responsibilities for the non-Teach For India class has been a great learning opportunity regarding the grassroots and the underbelly of the Hyderabad Old City. The students have had two years of continuous loss in learning and now facing a major challenge to write the Board Exams this academic year. Despite being a Teach For India intervention class the learning loss was real, with serious behavioral management issues, crippling financial position, and other social ills. Though there have been shifts In terms of Behavior Management, the progress has been slow and hard.

Conducting bi-weekly investment sessions with the parents, having career counseling sessions with the students, conducting open spaces for students to share their views, taking in feedback and incorporating the same in my teaching strategies, investing students in weekly plans. This ensured that the students were much more invested in their academics and the purpose of academics and attending school. Empathy Mapping and one-on-one conversations helped us and the students to express themselves clearly in terms of what they feel and what they would like to be doing in the future. I have been conducting many Career Counselling sessions as well as talks with external people to build interest and hope in the students.

For all of these to be conducted effectively, I have been conducting analysis to better understand the root causes in the community that may be hindering the student's growth by taking into account the cluster analysis and basing on the problems faced by the students and the parents, the hypothesis that we created for the problem statement for various community-level issues and academic performance issues in the school were effectively conducted. For all of this to happen, I leveraged free courses from the Acumen Academy as well as engaged with Alumni who have been active in the field to help better in analysis.

Post the first year of the Fellowship, along with my school team, we identified that there has been a growing lacuna in terms of compliance, governance, structure and strategy, and effective impact evaluation in the community. We also identified plenty of gaps in providing support for Girl children beyond Higher Secondary grades, and additionally, there are a lot of gaps in Low-Income Private Schools and the infrastructure, capacity building of the schools.

Hence we realized the need for providing such support to these schools beyond the Fellowship. My school team and I have created a fund to support the education of the girl children in the community and to aid capacity building and resources for the school to ensure excellent education, such as salaries for skilled and qualified permanent teachers, infrastructure, creating community Leaders.

The progress we have made is two-fold. One, We have reached out to the Teach For India community in Hyderabad to support us in this project and help us build our skills and further our efforts. We have also reached out to Alumni to help us conduct surveys and establish strong monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure the sustainability of the project post our support.

Penamakuri Krishna Kumar Vasishta

Cohort 2020

Hyderabad

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