Teach For India Fellowship 2016

FELLOWSHIP FAQS

Why should I join Teach For India?

Teach For India offers you the chance to make a real difference in tackling one of India’s most pressing challenges — educational inequity. By presenting you with one of the most difficult challenges of your life, the Fellowship will help you develop leadership skills that are critical in today’s dynamic global work environment. The Fellowship Program gives you an opportunity to become a part of the solution and a change agent in the society.

Who are we looking for?

Teach For India is looking for potential Fellows who have exhibited academic proficiency, demonstrated leadership, strong organizational skills, hold a graduate degree and are inclined to make a commitment to the community. Students and professionals with a Bachelor’s Degree at the time of joining the Fellowship are invited to apply.

What does the Teach For India Fellowship entail?

The Teach For India Fellowship is a two-year paid commitment during which our Fellows are placed as full-time teachers in under-resourced and low-income schools. Throughout the Fellowship, Teach For India Fellows help close the achievement gap by leading their students to significant academic gains. In the second year of the Fellowship, Fellows implement a community-wide or school-wide project to address one major obstacle to learning in their community.

Why does the Fellowship last two years? Can I teach for just one year if I choose?

The two-year commitment is necessary to make the impact we wish to have on student achievement. In the first year, Fellows will refine their teaching skills and will start to establish respect and trust among various stakeholders within the school community and the students. This will allow Fellows to achieve significant academic gains for students and to implement their community/school project in the second year. Furthermore, Teach For India is looking for leaders who are willing to commit to long-term change and have the perseverance to work hard in challenging situations. In this context, the two-year commitment is but a small step towards long-term reform.

How many Fellows does Teach For India currently have?

Teach for India currently has approximately 1200 Fellows, teaching across 7 cities and 1100 Alumni. In 2015, Bengaluru became a part of Teach for India’s placement cities adding to our existing presence in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Teach For India Fellow are teaching approximately 32,000 children in these cities.

What are the profiles of Teach For India Fellows?

Teach For India Fellows are a diverse group of people, brought together by their past achievements and their passion to eliminate educational inequity. They come from diverse backgrounds of colleges such as IITs, IIMs, St.Stephen’s College, St. Xavier’s College, Christ University, Presidency College etc and companies such as Accenture, McKinskey, Mahindra & Mahindra, IBM, Ernst & Young, Schlumberger etc. By joining the Fellowship, you will get an opportunity to work with some of the brightest and most enterprising minds of the country.

How does Teach For India’s approach to teaching differ from traditional approaches?

At Teach for India, we believe that Teaching is Leadership. For our Fellows and Students to be leaders, we focus on building skills and mindsets through our Leadership Development Journey. The LDJ takes Fellows through 8 milestones in which they explore where their classroom is on the Student Vision Scale, where they are on the Fellow Commitments Scale, what Competencies they need to work on and which Opportunities they can avail of to work on those. This is a cycle to build reflective practice throughout the journey. The Student Vision Scale defines the kind of Academic Achievement, Values and Mindsets and Exposure and Access our students need to have path-changing learning and make them student leaders. The Fellow Commitments Scale defines the three commitments, to Personal Transformation, to Collective Action and to Education Equity that all of us in the movement need to be leaders who will go on to eliminate educational inequity in the country.

Which standard will I be teaching and what will be the medium of instruction?

Teach For India Fellows are placed in 2nd to 10th standard classrooms where they teach all major subjects — including English, Mathematics, Social studies and Science with the exception of regional languages.  Although the mother tongue is helpful in interacting within our communities, it is not a necessary prerequisitie as our schools are English medium.

Where will I be teaching?

Teach For India Fellows will be placed in low-income schools in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. All Fellows will be required to reside in one of these cities during the period of the Fellowship. If you are unable to do so, please note that we will expand into more cities in the upcoming years, and hope to be in 10 cities and their surrounding rural areas within the next 5 years.

Will I be trained adequately before I start teaching?

Teach For India will work relentlessly to ensure that all Fellows have the knowledge and skills necessary to lead their students towards achievement. The Teach For India Fellowship begins with a five-week residential training program. Here, Fellows are exposed to curriculum, lesson planning, and classroom facilitation and student assessments among other modules, sessions and keys to successful teaching. Additionally, each Fellow will have a mentor in the form of a Program Manager whose primary responsibility is to guide Fellows to become effective teachers and leaders. Additionally, Teach For India will also provide ongoing technical trainings from in-house trainers.

How much will I be paid during the Fellowship?

Teach For India Fellows will be paid a salary of Rs. 17,500 per month. If required to relocate from their home city, Fellows will be given a housing allowance ranging from Rs.5500 to 10,000, depending on the city in which they will stay. In addition, Fellows will receive an allowance for school supplies.

How will the Teach For India experience help me grow professionally?

Teach For India strongly believes that excellent teachers employ the same skills as excellent leaders in any field. Spending two years in the classroom will help Fellows develop leadership skills such as organization, communication, problem-solving in an unstructured environment, people management and resourcefulness that are valuable in any sector. Teach For India will select Fellows who have demonstrated excellence in the past and will work with them throughout the two-year Fellowship to ensure that they take advantage of the experience to become extraordinary future leaders.

What options will be open to me after the Fellowship?

Teach For India's fifth cohort of Fellows graduated in April, 2015. Our 1100 alumni are now spread all over the country and abroad in jobs ranging from consulting to education startups; and as students in top universities such as Harvard, Cornell, Chicago Booth, Columbia and Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Teach For India supports its Fellows to pursue their individual career interests by training and mentoring them and striving to build relationships with top schools, universities, NGOs, and corporate throughout the country. Teach For India has already established close ties with HDFC, Godrej Industries, Harvard Business School, IIM Bangalore, ISB, McKinsey & Company, Tata Consultancy Services, Columbia Law School, Ernst & Young and the Thermax Group, among many others.

ADMISSION AND APPLICATION FAQS

How can I save the application form?

The online application is designed to let you complete various sections in your own time before you submit the final version. Please ensure that you click on “Save and Proceed” button at the bottom of every section before moving on to another section.

The Admissions team will only review your application once you submit it. They will NOT look at your application while you are still working on it.

In spite of registering, why have I not received an email yet?

We are sure our system is completely compatible with email services such as Gmail and Yahoo. However, there are certain email services such as Hotmail that have a highly restrictive email filter and hence, it could be the case that the email we sent did not get delivered to you. We request you to register using a Gmail or Yahoo account.

Also, please check your Spam/Junk folder to ensure the email has not gotten delivered there.

If you have still not received the email, please email apply@teachforindia.org with your registration ID and we will get back to you within 48 hours.

ADMISSION AND APPLICATION FAQS

How can I save the application form?

In spite of registering, why have I not received an email yet?

What are the four application deadlines?

We have 4 application deadlines for the 2016 Teach For India’s Fellowship Program. The application deadlines are:
Deadline 1- Tuesday, August 25th, 2015, 11:59pm
Deadline 2: Tuesday, October 27th 2015, 11:59 pm
Deadline 3: Tuesday, December 8th 2015, 11:59 pm
Deadline 4 Tuesday, February 2nd 2016, 11:59 pm
You are eligible to apply ONLY for one of the above deadlines, i.e., if you apply for Deadline 2: October 27th 2015, you will NOT be eligible to apply for the future deadlines.

What is the admission criteria to apply to the 2016 Teach For India Fellowship Program?

(a) Minimum Qualification: You must have completed all coursework required for your undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s degree equivalent) from an accredited college or university by the last week of May 2016. Your degree transcripts (graduate/postgraduate certificates) will be reviewed before an admission decision can be taken. Applicants must also pass any coursework indicated in their transcripts at the time of the interview. (b) Nationality: You should be either (i) an Indian citizen or (ii) a foreign national of Indian origin. Foreign citizens who are not of Indian origin are not eligible to apply. Note to Foreign nationals of Indian origin: For more information on the OCI card, please go to the Ministry of Home Affairs. To apply for the OCI card, please go to the Online OCI Registration Form. We recommend applying for the OCI card as soon as you have made the decision to join the Fellowship, as it takes approximately 1-3 months to receive the card. (c) Commitment & Location: The Fellowship is a full-time, paid commitment to teaching and living in one of our placement cities (Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad or Ahmedabad, Bengaluru) starting May/June 2016. Fellows will be full-time staff members of the schools in which they are placed and will work stipulated school hours six days a week as well as attending training and support sessions as per city requirements. (d) English Fluency: You should be fluent in the English language as Teach For India Fellows will be placed in English-medium schools and will be expected to teach in and attend training sessions conducted in English. (e) Age Limit: There is no age limit to apply for Teach for India Fellowship.

On the application form, how do I enter my GPA/percentage/cumulative average?

Please check whichever measure is most relevant to you, and then fill in both your score and the base from which it was calculated. Please give only one measure.

For example, if your institution uses “Cumulative Average” as its measure for academic achievement and your cumulative average is 8.0/10.0, please check “Cumulative Average”, and then fill in “8.0” on Score and “10.0” on Base. If your institution does not calculate any of these measures for you, you will have to calculate the average of the final grades of ALL of your coursework, and fill in the relevant information.

If you are currently in your final year at college and hence do not have your final year graduation scores, please enter an average of your scores from all your previous years at college.

Please note that if you attend an Assessment Centre, we will ask for copies of your marksheets or transcripts to confirm the score you indicated.

Why are the essays important?

The essays are your chance to tell us about yourself and your interest for Teach For India. As they are extended answers with no upper word limit, you will be able to use them as an opportunity to demonstrate to us in detail why you are a strong candidate for the Fellowship.  Please therefore spend time developing your understanding of Teach For India - by reading our website, watching our short videos, speaking with staff, Fellows or Alumni or reading related articles – as well as thinking about what you want to tell us before writing your response.

Please also ensure that you have checked your essays for spelling and grammar errors as well as to ensure that you have answered each question fully. We recommend that you draft your essays off-line before proof reading and then copy-pasting them onto the application form, to ensure that the essays you submit are of the highest quality.

When will I hear back?

You will first hear back from us within two weeks of the deadline that you applied for.

For example, if you apply before the first deadline, that is, the 27th of October 2015, then you will hear back from us by mid-November with the result of your application.

What is the selection process?

We select Fellows over a multi-stage admissions process. The selection process for the 2015 Fellowship will include the following stages:

(a) Online Test (assessing English Language and Logical Reasoning ability)

(b) Review of Online Application (including review of academic achievements, professional experience (if any), other interests and experiences as well as the essays)

(c) Phone Interview (this is not applicable for all applicants – some applicants may be invited to the Assessment Centre stage directly after their online application is reviewed if their online application provided us with enough evidence to make a decision)

(d) Assessment Centre (a full day evaluation where applicants participate in a group discussion, a sample teaching activity, a written critical thinking test as well as an individual interview)

(e) Academic, Employment and Reference Checks (once selected we will conduct an independent check of the academic and employment details provided by you, as well as contacting a referee – either someone who has directly managed you or a college professor who can vouch for your performance and suitability for the role