Frequently Asked Questions

Teach For India offers you the chance to make a real difference in tackling one of India's most pressing challenges — educational inequity. By placing you in an underserved classroom, the Fellowship is an opportunity to impact the lives of entire classroom(s) of children. You develop your leadership skills which are critical in today's dynamic global work environment. The Fellowship Program allows you to become a part of the solution and grow as a change agent in society. In short, the Teach For India Fellowship is an opportunity for you to:

• Find Your Purpose
  Develop an awareness of how poverty and inequity impacts India's children. Discover your values, strengths and areas of development, passion and purpose.

• Become a Leader
  Deliver bold possibilities for students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to realise their full potential. Build concrete leadership skills of envisioning, stakeholder management planning, execution and reflection in challenging environments. 

• Join a Movement
  Work with diverse stakeholders towards a shared vision. Become part of a movement of 4,000+ Fellows across India and countless more globally who will be your lifelong partners in this work.

• Drive Change
  Work at the grassroots level, and impact the lives of children and their families. Don't just talk about the India you envision. Build an India free of poverty and filled with love.

• The Fellowship is a 2-year, full-time, paid commitment.
• Fellows are placed in under-resourced English-medium classrooms in a government or low-income private school.
• Fellows work as subject/class teachers for a set of 40-80 Students, where they:

- take responsibility for students' academic and holistic learning outcomes growth.
- empower and enable the parents of Students.
- collaborate with school faculty and staff to create a conducive learning environment for all Students and learn about the grassroots challenges and enablers.

• Fellows work closely with other Fellows and staff members to learn, facilitate, and enable each other's leadership development and growth.

• Fellows embark on their own leadership development journey where they: 

- practice skills and traits of leadership through their daily work, reflective spaces, coaching conversations, and feedback loops.
- plan, execute and monitor their work while mobilising stakeholders regularly.
- drive a "Be The Change Project" - an entrepreneurial project rooted in solving daily challenges their Students encounter.

We look for: 

• A deep belief in an equitable India and an excellent education for all children.
• Leadership potential and openness to learning.
• Courage - an orientation to set bold and ambitious goals for their children and themselves.
• Problem-solving abilities to navigate the many challenges they will encounter. 
• Collaborative skills to work with diverse people towards shared goals.

The Fellowship has approximately 490+ Year 1 Fellows and 430+ Year 2 Fellows teaching across eight cities.

Over the years, we have seen 4,500+ individuals complete the Fellowship. In the cohort, one will experience the following:

• Professional diversity - We have seen applicants from over 500 universities and 300 organisations apply to the Fellowship. 
• We have recent graduates and postgraduates from diverse degrees and Institutions such as LSR, Hindu College, Daulat Ram, Christ College, Anna University, Fergusson College, St. Xaviers, Jadavpur University, TISS, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi University, Symbiosis, Wellesley, Illinois Urbana Champagne, Franklin & Marshall, etc.
• We attract ‍‍professionals pivoting from corporate jobs (who want to #DoMore than a 9-5 job) or other social sector professionals looking to work at the grassroots. These include professionals from Aditya Birla, Citibank, Axis Bank, Deloitte, E&Y, Salesforce, TCS, Zensar, Amazon, Infosys, ICICI, Make A Difference, etc.
• Some are entrepreneurs keen to grow their leadership skills and explore the grassroots of India through the medium of the Fellowship.‍
• Age diversity - Our Fellows range from the age of 22 to 55. It is never too late or too early to begin creating social impact and driving sustainable change in the world, no matter what stage of life you are at.‍
• Regional diversity - Our Fellows come from all over the country, and we have some foreign nationals of Indian origin too. We have Fellows from varied cultural backgrounds.

At Teach For India, we believe in imparting a holistic education that enables children to excel academically and gain a holistic education rooted in children's personal growth. Students (and Fellows) are encouraged and empowered to explore their growth, enable others around them, and constantly strive to positively impact the community around them.  
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 (LDJ).

No, teaching experience is not required to be a Fellow. The Fellowship provides adequate training and development to help individuals learn the knowledge and skills of being a great teacher.

• The Fellowship begins with a residential training program (also known as Institute) where you will be exposed to curriculum, lesson planning, classroom facilitation and Student assessments, among other modules, sessions and keys to successful teaching. 
• Additionally, you will embark on your leadership journey and explore your strengths, values and stakeholder engagement. 
• You will also have a Programme Manager support and coach you to lead yourself and your students. 
• Moreover, in the first few weeks, you will be placed in a classroom as a full-time teacher and receive ongoing on-the-job training to improve yourself continually. 

Through the Fellowship, you will learn transferable leadership skills and traits, including the following: 

• Connect: As you work closely with other teachers, parents, school staff and your Students, you will learn to listen deeply, empathise, and build strong relationships.
• Envision: As you envision a bold, new future for your children, you will learn to dream big for yourself and others.
• Plan: As you plan for Students at different levels with a wide range of needs and interests, you will learn advanced planning, organisational and time management skills.
• Execute: As you learn to teach Students to learn in ways that meet their varied learning styles, you will discover a range of communication, management and team skills.‍
• Reflect: As you pause to see where your Students have progressed and ask what you might have done better in and beyond class, you will learn to reflect deeply and make meaning of every challenge and opportunity.

As a Teach For India Fellow, you will be placed in schools in underserved communities in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai or Pune. All Fellows will be required to reside in one of these cities during the period of the Fellowship.

As a Teach For India Fellow, you will be placed in grade 1 to 10 classrooms where you will teach all major subjects — including English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science, except for regional languages. Although the mother tongue helps interact within our communities, it is not a necessary prerequisite, as you will be teaching in English medium classrooms.

As a Teach For India Fellow, you will be paid a stipend of INR 25,344 per month. If you are relocating from your home city, you will receive a City Compensatory Allowance (CCA) ranging from INR 6,000 to INR 12,600 depending on your placement city during the Fellowship.

Yes, you will be eligible for the stipend even during the Summer Institute. However, Fellows relocating to a different city become eligible for the City Compensatory Allowance only once they move to their respective Teach For India placement city.

• A stipend of INR 25,344 per month.
• A housing allowance of INR 6,000–12,600 (depending on the placement city).
• Reimbursements for work-related expenses (e.g. school supplies on a per-child cost basis).
• Health insurance of up to INR 100,000 and access to free counselling.
• Casual and sick leave, national, regional and school holidays and a summer break.
• Access to our career fair after the Fellowship.

Our Alumni study and work across India and around the world. Teach For India supports its Fellows to pursue their career interests by training and mentoring them and striving to build relationships with NGOs, corporations, top schools and universities. Here's a list of common pathways pursued by our Alumni:

• They choose to stay as teachers and leaders in schools or community centres — for example, iTeach Schools, Akanksha Foundation, and Simple Education Foundation. 
• They support schools through curriculum and assessment reform, large-scale teacher training and ed-tech, like Khan Academy and LEAD School.
• They work on policy and governance issues, supporting governments directly on large-scale systemic reforms in education. Samagra and Central Square Foundation are some of these organisations.
• They launch their own enterprises, treading the path of social entrepreneurship. Mantra4Change, Leadership For Equity, TrustIn, and Indian School of Democracy are just a few of the organisations set up by our Alumni. 
• They choose to pursue their graduate or doctoral education at top universities in India and abroad in institutions like Azim Premji University, Indian School of Business, IIM, Harvard, Columbia and London School of Economics.
• They enter the corporate sector to work with consulting firms or on a CSR team. For example, BCG, Sattva, Thermax and LTTS.

Teach For India hosts two Career Fairs for its second-year Fellows in the last quarter of their Fellowship:

1. The Internal Career Fair for staff roles within Teach For India.
2. The External Career Fair with over 100 diverse employers (from the education, social development and corporate sectors) offering roles up to mid-level positions. 

In addition, Fellows receive support for post-Fellowship opportunities through training and review sessions on topics like Resume making and mock interviews.

No. The Fellowship is a two-year full-time commitment. We do not permit our Fellows to be involved in any other external professional or academic engagements during their Fellowship.

We do not currently offer deferrals, due to the changing needs of schools from year to year, and the unpredictability of teacher shortages.