Redrawing India

Kovid Gupta

Description

Eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistri, having grown up around the world, spends the summer in Mumbai and wanders into the Ambedkar Nagar slum community. She sees Pinky, who becomes the first of the thousands of children whose lives she will touch on her journey. Hers are the endlessly compelling stories of the underprivileged children of India, the harsh realities that they face, and the hope and love that will catapult them into being a future generation of leaders. This is a story of the power of personal reflection and makes us ask ourselves the question, 'What is the greatest life I can live?' And in answer are the personal accounts of so many Teach For India Fellows and staff, India's best and brightest, who have shown that each and every one of us, working together, towards the belief that one day every child will have the opportunity to receive an excellent education, has the power to change the world.

Sujets

• Education
• India

Informations

• Publié par: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184006636
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

KOVID GUPTA AND SHAHEEN MISTRI

REDRAWING INDIA
The Teach For India Story
RANDOM HOUSE INDIA
Contents
A Note on the Authors
Foreword by Anu Aga
Preface
1. Didi
2. We Will Rise
3. A Moral Imperative
4. Teach for India is Inevitable
5. Firki
6. The Niners
7. The First Year
8. This is Real
9. The Colours of a Movement
10. Seva
11. The Path So Far
12. Find Your Light
Afterword
References
Footnotes
1. Didi
2. We Will Rise
5. Firki
7. The First Year
11. The Path So Far
12. Find Your Light
Acknowledgements
Follow Random House
Copyright
A NOTE ON THE AUTHORS

Kovid Gupta is pursuing an MBA from Cornell University. He holds a BBA, BS, and BA from the University of Texas at Austin. He has previously worked on Teach For India s alumni impact team. As a screenwriter, he has written for popular television shows Balika Vadhu , Bade Achhe Lagte Hain , and Chhan Chhan .

Shaheen Mistri is the Founder of Akanksha, and the Founder and CEO of Teach For India. She has served as an advisor and board member to other organizations, including the Latika Roy Foundation, Ummeed, The Indian School Leadership Institute, Akanksha, Teach For All, and the Government of India.
To every child in India, and their potential to shape India s future
Praise for Teach for India
I truly believe that what Teach For India is trying to do is very revolutionary, very positive, and will contribute a lot in the way our nation moves forward in the years to come. I wish something like this was around when I was passing out of school or college. Aamir Khan, Actor
Teach For India is like Shakespeare s gentle rain from heaven -it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. It is becoming a force for driving positive change in this country as it impacts futures and changes lives. The Teach for India story needs to be told and I believe this book is an important step in spreading its message. Anand Mahindra, Chairman and MD, Mahindra Group
Teach For India is doing an amazing job of helping even the odds for thousands of children. It has brought together young men and women who want to make a difference, and what better way to make a difference than through children? The Teach For India story is about moulding lives and shaping futures. Jaideep Bose, Chief Editor, Times of India
Teach For India has the potential to have a possibly greater impact in catalyzing and developing a movement to provide all of India s children with the opportunities they deserve. Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-Founder, Teach For All
Teach for India teaches India s best and brightest compassion, perseverance, emotional resilience, and the value of constantly thinking on your feet-the core values needed for success in endeavours after. It will also give you love and oceans of gratitude from the children you teach and from their families. What more can one ask for from the Universe? Rahul Bose, Actor, Social Activist
Without a doubt, Teach for India is national service. It s incredible how real the change is that Fellows have brought to education. Arnab Goswami, News Anchor, Times Now
Teach for India Fellowship is not just about being a teacher for a couple of years, but teaching yourself invaluable lessons for life. Chetan Bhagat, Author
When I grow up, I am going to join Teach For India. I will be there until I am 30. After that I will try and join the Indian Embassy. If I fail, I will try again. If I fail a second time, I will try again. If I fail after that I will just stay in Teach For India for my whole life. Khalil Mulla, Teach For India student
Foreword
W hen Shaheen asked me to write a preface to this book, I was delighted. It gave me a chance to reflect on my seven-year long association with Teach For India, right from its inception to the admirable position it occupies today.
It was in the late 1990s that I met Shaheen. Though a social worker by training, destiny took me to the corporate world. I had been involved in some form of social work but never in a planned, systematic way. My son, who passed away in a car accident, had always wanted a part of our earnings to go towards social causes. After his death, I was looking for a credible NGO to work with and many people suggested I meet Shaheen, who ran Akanksha at the time. Armed with several questions, I met her in Mumbai and was fascinated by her and her passion for the cause of education. It is through Shaheen and Akanksha that I came to know about the educational landscape of India and realized the urgent need for change.
I will share my personal experience with a girl named Seema Kamble who lived in a Mumbai slum. She attended an Akanksha centre and thanks to the influence of her teachers and her own determination, she graduated from high school and then got her undergraduate degree. She went on to apply to the competitive Teach For India Fellowship where only 5-7 percent of the applicants are chosen, and she was one of the selected candidates. After completing her two-year Fellowship, today, she is the Principal of the 3.2.1 School, a school for low-income students run in partnership with the government.
I have again seen with my own eyes the power of education. My friend, Dr Mashelkar, who was the head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), came from an economically disadvantaged background. His father had died when he was six. But fortunately for him, his almost illiterate mother pushed him to continue his studies. He went to a municipal school in Mumbai and eventually went on to finish his Ph.D. We know the rest of the story.
Seven years ago, Shaheen excitedly told me about Teach For America, which had brought about systemic change in the US educational system. She wanted to try out this idea in India and asked if I would be her partner. Anyone who knows Shaheen would have experienced her magnetic power to get people excited about a venture. We invited Wendy Kopp, the Founder of Teach For America, to India and worked with McKinsey to develop a five-year blueprint. I am delighted to say that we have surpassed my expectations.
I greatly admire Teach For India s bold aspiration to provide an excellent education to all children. I believe in its approach to drive systemic change through leaders who are equipped with the values and skills to transform children s lives. I have been into classrooms and seen what our Fellows are able to do. And I have met many of our Alumni and seen their on-going commitment to systemic change.
There is so much in our system that needs to change, for us to reverse our failing public education system. India still faces an acute shortage of 1.2 million teachers-its Teacher Training Institutes are crumbling, as evidenced by a meager 14 percent of teachers passing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), and training of school principals is virtually unheard of.
Unfortunately, with tragic consequences, the profession of teaching has lost its sheen. It is not an aspirational profession in India. If a surgeon does not do his job well, word will go around and patients will quickly stop coming. This is the same for a lawyer or any other professional; but if a teacher spends all her life without impacting her students, nobody stops her from being a teacher. Where we need the highest quality and the greatest accountability, we are willing to live with mediocrity. It is time we imagine and create an India where teaching becomes aspirational; where the profession attracts the best of talent, is respected, and our teachers meet the highest expectations.
Teach For India does two things-one, it places excellent teachers for two years in classrooms with students who need them the most and two, it creates an Alumni movement where people like Seema go on to make a lifetime commitment to education, and others impact education from diverse sectors like politics, technology, and business. I have seen the two years alter students in a way they probably never imagined.
In a short span of five years, Teach For India already has 930 teachers teaching across 6 cities. To me, it is incredible that Teach For India has created a platform where this year alone 13,000 passionate, well-educated graduates from some of the best colleges and companies in the country competed for just 500 seats in order to teach, and after that, to be a leader working for educational equity.
The seeds of inspiration that are spreading through our 30,000 students and their families, our 900 Fellows, 700 alumni and their networks, seem to me the beginning of a revolution that will lead India to a better tomorrow.
We know for sure that when we educate a child well, we improve her ability to make choices and lead a healthy and productive life. So, in the myriad challenges that our nation faces, I believe that giving every child a good education will be the single most effective instrument to bring about fundamental change for an India that we wish to create-an India that lives up to its Constitutional promise.
Two hundred million children in this country are waiting to attain the excellent education they deserve. It is a daunting challenge. I believe that more than any other time in our history, we have the resources, ideas, and skills to solve a problem of this magnitude now. The question is do we have the will? Are we willing to join hands and work together-irrespective of the sector we come from or the diversity of our backgrounds? More importantly, are we bold enough to dream beyond the realities of today? Are we bold enough to dream of the India we all wish it to be?
Teach For India has envisioned such a dream, a courageous dream-to reimagine and create a vibrant India. In this dream, we see every child in India with access to an excellent education. Let us prove that we are a nation capable of realizing this dream and have the will and fortitude to get there. I invite everyone reading this to join this movement to make this dream a reality an