Looking for a few good people

One year ago, in response to The Times of India’s Teach India outreach programme that asked people to volunteer to teach underprivileged children, 90,000 Indians stepped up to the plate. This huge army included senior corporate executives, college students, doctors, housewives, businessmen and grandmothers, driven both by a desire to pay back as well as by a curiosity to peep beyond the invisible curtain that divides privilege and poverty. Today, Teach India launches its 2009 chapter, with the same goal: to address, in however modest a manner, the lack of good schools and teachers for the underprivileged. This initiative seeks to harness personal goodwill for the public good. India has 287 million illiterate people, which is distressing enough without the added statistic that of every 10 children who go to school only one makes it to college. Ninety per cent drop out for social and economic reasons. Teach India calls on volunteers who can give two hours of teaching time per week for at least three months. Those interested should register online on http://www.teachindia.itimes.com. Registration is open till July 15.

Light up lives and make a difference

To introduce volunteers to the programme and answer questions, induction sessions will be held across the city on July 18 and 19. At the orientation, NGO representatives will explain how teacher and student can be connected in a convenient and effective way. We had a few teething problems last year in matching volunteers with teaching centres; we hope that with the experience of a year behind us, this year will be smooth. Those who did wade into slums, markets, community halls and mobile school vans last year, came away with plenty of stories. Stories about razor-sharp young minds who want to learn English, who want to be able to do their sums, and know where on the map India is. Their teachers taught them about rivers and crops and told them tales from Amar Chitra Katha and used cricket to decode simple principles of science. The children told them about why they were sent to school — for the midday meal — and how they had watched Dhoom so many times that they could spout the dialogue by heart. For both teacher and student, it was like being in the middle of a Discovery channel programme. If you missed the movement last year, the kids missed you as well. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear them say, “Good morning, teacher”?



Teach For India

In addition to The Times of India’s own Teach India initiative (in collaboration with a number of education NGOs), we are also proud to support another great programme, Teach for India (TFI). While Teach India asks for two hours of your time every week, TFI wants two years of your life. TFI’s objective is to end inequity in education by recruiting bright young graduates and professionals who will teach full time in India’s poorest schools and as alumni will work together to create systemic change in education. TFI has already placed its first batch of 87 in schools and is preparing to launch its second recruitment cycle.

For details, please go to www.teachforindia.org

SECOND COMING: A happy snapshot from Teach India last year
(Times of India - 08/07/2009)