Dear TFIx Family,
Our journey is incomplete without the 3 Commitments, which we hold very dear to our heart: Educational Equity, Collective Action, and Personal Transformation. These commitments guide us in the transformational journey to collectively reach every child in the country . Through this newsletter we want to show you some glimpses of how our different stakeholders (2020 Entrepreneurs, Alumni and Staff) are working towards these 3 commitments.
Commitment To Personal Transformation
Learnings From the Quarter
Venkatessan is a 2020 TFIx Entrepreneur from Karnataka. He is working towards creating a movement of change leaders to provide excellent education to every child in Karnataka. In the video below he shares about some key shifts and learnings he acquired in the last quarter.
Pitch Presentation
To be able to successfully launch a Fellowship model, it is very important for Entrepreneurs to share a strong narrative for the same. Throughout the incubation period, our Entrepreneurs get multiple opportunities to present their Fellowship model to senior members in the education sector and receive feedback. Compared to the Mock-pitch session in Institute, Entrepreneurs showed a great improvement in boldly presenting their work.
Virtual Site Visits
A core to our program is the role of our Program Partners. A Program Partner is a developer, connector and a manager at TFIx. Restructuring an organisation to be able to launch a Fellowship program is a big decision and our Program Partners enable our entrepreneurs to wear different hats at different points of time to bring out the best in them and their teams.
We witnessed one of the teacher trainings at Agragamee for young teachers teaching in the villages of South Orissa Tribal Districts. The training helped us to see where they were with regard to teaching and learning best practices and have a reflective discussion on the way forward.
We also created a space to give feedback on where they were and the strengths and weaknesses of the program and its team in launching the Fellowship in 2021. What stood out very starkly was the team's curiosity and thirst to learn and grow.
In the coming quarter the team will be putting all their efforts in detailing the student and fellow curriculum in alignment with their Theory of Change. Funding is an area of concern and they have begun the work on newer ways to raise money for their projects.
Leadership India Needs
"Leadership India Needs" is an initiative to document stories of leadership, resilience and transformation emerging from various Fellowship Programs run by TFIx Entrepreneurs. We got to interact with Fellows across the country to understand their journey, challenges and achievements.
Here is a short video from our conversation with Abhishek Tiwari an extremely passionate educator who believes in the power of community. Abhishek was an i-Discover Fellow with Kshamtalaya Foundation before joining them as a Program Manager.
A Journey Towards Working For All Children
Commitment To Collective Action
We believe in building authentic relationships and organising partners to multiply and deepen our impact. In the last 3 months we saw healthy collaborations budding among our entrepreneurs and our external partners. We also partnered with Teach For India Delhi & Chennai to create a virtual learning experience for our 2020 Entrepreneurs. Read on to know more.
Virtual City Visit: Teach For India Delhi & Chennai
To deepen their understanding of vision-action alignment, organisational structures and support systems required to run successful Fellowship programs, Entrepreneurs observed TFI Virtual Classes and Program Manager - Fellow debrief. They were also part of an inspiring panel discussion with the City Directors of Teach For India Delhi and Chennai.
We are extremely grateful to Teach For India Delhi & Chennai for sharing key learnings coming from experience of running a Fellowship program for so many years. Entrepreneurs found this experience very powerful and relevant.
Ecosystem Day 2.0
Failure Files
Most discussions around failure happen behind closed doors. It’s time to change this. We’re looking forward to talking about failure with India Development Review's newest series #FailureFiles— co-created with @acumenacademy.
Commitment To Educational Equity
The year 2020 has tested each one of us to our limits. The changing landscape due to the pandemic made it extremely difficult for our Entrepreneurs and their teams (especially 2019 Cohort) to execute their Fellowship programs the way they had planned. Nonetheless, our resilient Entrepreneurs and their teams adapted to the new normal. Together, we made meaning of this ambiguous and changing landscape, to make strategic decisions, ensuring children are safe and learning. We are proud to share with you that out of 22 TFIx Alumni, 19 are still running their Fellowship programs. We are constantly supporting the other 3 (from 2019 Cohort) in different ways to enable them to launch their Fellowships.
Here are few Fellowships launched this year amidst the crisis:
Teach For North-East, Manipur
The Teach For North East Fellowship (Initiative by RREA) is an opportunity for all who believe that every child deserves an education that helps them bring out their truest self to serve the world better. The North East of India has been marred with years of conflict and one of the results of that is a failing education system. Their Fellows will be full time teachers in Government Schools of Manipur. They will also be full time learners, researchers, trainers, community mobilisers and all else that their children will require them to be.
The Bhumi Fellowship, Tamil Nadu
The Bhumi Fellowship, lead by 2020 TFIx Entrepreneur Vaishnavi Srinivasan, is a full-time paid two-year program designed to develop educational changemakers to lead the next movement in the public education system. Centred around the holistic development of children, the Bhumi Fellowship will help build an ecosystem within the school, to enable school leaders and teachers to equip students with the knowledge, adaptability, and resilience to thrive.
Developing Fellow & Student Curriculum
Learning By Doing - Swantantra Talim
Rahul Aggarwal, Co-founder of Swantantra Talim and 2018 TFIx Entrepreneur believes that education is relevant to a children when it empowers them to innovate and solve the problems of the community.
Here is a lovely video showcasing how students develop practical skills through experiential learning. The joy and excitement in children to carry out this project speaks volumes about the importance of holistic learning.
How Do We Make Education Relevant To Children?
We Are Accepting Applications For 2021 Cohort!
The world is going through turbulent times and it continues to restore our faith that enabling all children with wholesome, inclusive education and ensuring that they grow up to be responsible citizens is the only solution. To make that a reality, we support passionate Education Entrepreneurs to build sustainable movements of equity across the country.
TFIx Alumni are running 17 diverse Teaching Fellowship Programs impacting 30,000+ children with the help of 382 Fellows from across the country. Our dream is to reach the unreached and are looking for 2021 cohort of Entrepreneurs.
Click on the video below to know more about our program.