Dear Community,
2021 came with a realization that the path to a better tomorrow demanded something radically different. It demanded leadership. People who not only understand India’s ground realities but also have the commitment and gumption to change them.
TFIx has since then infused the system with more than 1310 leaders (Entrepreneurs and their Fellows) - people who have honed the courage and skill to take ownership of SELF and OTHERS in their community so that even the most marginalized children in INDIA have access to an excellent equitable education. Our community of Education Entrepreneurs grew to 45 this year. We launched 23 Fellowships and 5 Pilots to reach the last child in the country.
As challenging as it was, 2021 has also given us so much to celebrate. A series of workshops with Teach For All helped us put together network insights, examples related to organization structure and choices, and fundamental questions towards furthering clarity and planning for TFIx’s next programmatic phase.
This Newsletter offers a glimpse into the path-changing collaborations, breakthroughs, and relentless efforts put by our community pioneering every single day to help us strive towards our goals to reach every child in the country. Our 4 goals revolve around creating a strong support system for Entrepreneurs that will enable them to launch, strengthen, scale, and sustain Teaching Fellowships in their regions.
As we welcome 2022, we look forward to continuing to act collectively with different stakeholders and operate with love to develop India through Education. At the same time, we sincerely hope that this new year 2022 brings peace and health to you and your loved ones.
Goal 1
Every Entrepreneur is ready to launch, sustain, strengthen and scale their 2-year high-impact teaching Fellowships based on their context.
Recruitment Highlights: Cohort 2022
In Stage 1 of TFIx’s Incubation Program, Education Entrepreneurs across India are recruited, selected, and accept a commitment to become part of TFIx and launch a Fellowship program which then serves as a foundation for a lifetime of service as an agent of change.
Learning Circle 2.0
In Stage 2 of TFIx’s Incubation Program, our Entrepreneurs receive training, direct support, and leadership development that enables them to successfully launch a Fellowship program as part of their organization and/or community. After 2 years, we finally got a chance to deep dive into the physical side of things. Our 2nd Learning Circle happened in Nagpur, Maharashtra where our Entrepreneurs came together, as a growing community, to learn from each other towards creating an impact that is transformational and sustainable for their regions.
The Fellow Curriculum is specifically designed by TFIx Entrepreneurs for the personal & professional development of their Fellows. This is towards enabling them to implement balanced, varied, and effective teaching and learning methods for children that they reach.
We also support our Entrepreneurs to develop robust and efficient - Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Impact (MELI) framework with the help of experts in the ecosystem to ascertain the capacities in which their communities are benefiting from the significant investments made in their Fellowship program, and When & How of it.
Fundraising Webinar #3
As a part of the Fundraising Strategy, to support our Ed-Entrepreneurs, we partnered with Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to provide insights on the What, Why, and How of designing a winning proposal for their organizations.
Entrepreneur Partner Site Visit 1 - Involve Learning Solutions
In Stage 3 of our Incubation Program, we support TFIx Entrepreneur Partners (our alumni) who have launched Education Fellowships in their region and demonstrate promising abilities to sustain and scale them over time.
Hitanshi Gandhi, TFIx’s Enabler’s Manager got a chance to visit Samyak Jain, COO, Involve Learning Solutions, and our 2020 Entrepreneur. Reaching 2000 children in Chennai & Bangalore, Samyak’s organization is working towards student leadership and academic learning through a Fellowship model. In the video below, Hitanshi shares her experience of the site visit, and how the Involve team committed to a culture of contribution and support as an official ‘partner’ in the greater TFIx community.
Entrepreneur Partner Site Visit 2 - Vidya Poshak and Deshpande Foundation
Rajshree Doshi, TFIx’s Lead, and Divya Dhingra, TFIx's Communications and Development Associate got a chance to visit the site of Venkatesan N, Executive Director, Vidya Poshak, and our 2020 Entrepreneur. She explored how some promising young leaders from local communities are serving as role models of the community by providing quality education to 1000 students in some of Karnataka’s most under-resourced schools. She also witnessed Vidya Poshak team demonstrate an ability to sustain and continually scale their Fellowship Program in alignment with TFIx’s principles.
She also got a chance to visit the Deshpande Foundation which works towards accelerating the creation of sustainable and scalable enterprises that have a significant social and economic impact. The team explored avenues of collaboration and discussed ideas for a partnership framework between our organizations.
Goal 2
Entrepreneurs become lifelong support to each other.
In our Entrepreneurs’ long journeys of eliminating Educational Inequity, we strive towards creating spaces for them to come together, with acceptance, belief, and love, to address all the boulders that will inevitably come their way on the long road to equity. Throughout the incubation year, they support, challenge, and inspire each other in different aspects through community webinars, peer site visits, learning circles, presentation feedback, etc. Through these spaces, our Entrepreneurs build a community of strong cadre of leaders who learn and grow together.
A Life-long Community of Support
A Camaraderie built through Collaboration
Adwait Dandwate and Ganesh Birajdar are TFIx incubated Entrepreneurs from the 2018 and 2020 cohorts respectively. Besides a Fellowship, Adwait is running a one-year-long support program ‘Community Collective’ to support early-stage Ed-Entrepreneurs build their models. Recently, Adwait and Ganesh collaborated to develop Ganesh’s Fellowship model running in Nagpur, Maharashtra. In the video below, they share their experience of working jointly which enabled them to lead the process of community-building.
TFIx Entrepreneur Site Visits - Slum Soccer & Learning Companions
On the third day of Learning circle 2, TFIx 2021 cohort and staff visited Abhijeet Barse, TFIx 2021 Entrepreneur's site- Slum Soccer. Abhijeet is working towards Education through Soccer. Their Playmaker Fellowship seeks to fill the playing gap by sending trained Fellows to the low-income schools of Nagpur, Maharashtra. Through the site visit, we got a chance to explore new learning methodologies and share constructive feedback to strengthen the same.
We also got a chance to visit Ganesh Birajdar, TFIx 2020 Entrepreneur's site- Learning Companions. Our Entrepreneurs explored the proposed Fellowship model at Ganesh’s site — providing holistic education to equip children from rural Nagpur to be skillful and financially independent. They presented the journey of how each one of them grew along the incubation stages.
We met Fellows living in huts in the same community to immerse in the lives of the people there so as to maximize their learning and impact on the community.
Goal 3
Every Entrepreneur develops their awareness about their internal and external ecosystem to leverage the support around them.
Throughout the incubation year, we build not only the knowledge and capabilities of our Entrepreneurs but also their awareness of self and organization. When they identify their needs we act as connectors to the solution or the right source of assistance that might help them enhance their program. As a program of Teach For India, TFIx provides Entrepreneurs with relevant connections, resources, and networks that are needed to accelerate and deepen their impact on educational equity.
Shiksha Sarathi (Ecosystem Day 3.0)
In collaboration with InnovatED, Shiksha Sarathi 2021 was a virtual space organized for a selected group of TFIx and InnovatED Entrepreneurs to pitch their work to donors to yield funding for their initiatives and get forward connections. Their organizations/Fellowships range from life skills development through sports to school leadership, from education in remote geographies for out-of-school children to social-emotional learning, and from building local leadership to teacher training and school transformation in rural areas.
Pitch Presentation
During Learning Circle 2, Entrepreneurs presented their Fellowship development so far and received/gave feedback.
Sandeep Rai, Chief of City Operations at Teach For India, and Adwait Dandwate, Founder, Vardhishnu Social Research & Development Society, and TFIx 2018 Entrepreneur were our domain experts for the session. In the video below, Sandeep shares his take on a Fellowship model being the most effective intervention for our Entrepreneurs' organizations and his key takeaways from the space.
Amplifying our work through Media Collaborations
A strategic collaboration between Teach For India’s National Communications team and TFIx’s Enablers team has been instrumental in amplifying the reach of our Entrepreneurs’ work and looping in more applications for 2022. We’re grateful to the National Communications team for their efforts and looking forward to implementing new strategies, touchpoints, and shared goals to reach the last child in the country.
Goal 4
Every Entrepreneur works collectively with different stakeholders and operates with love to develop their region.
Post Incubation Support: Entrepreneur Partner Learning Circle
As a part of the post-incubation support, we had our first ‘Sharing cum Learning Circle’ with our 2020 Entrepreneurs. It was a space to celebrate their journeys so far, to express challenges being faced as they run their Fellowships in blended ways, to have meaningful conversations and learn together.
A fuelled collaboration between Teach For India and TFIx
Rahul Sahu, a fifth-year Program Manager with Teach For India, Mumbai supported Pratap, TFIx Stage-2 post-incubation 2020 Entrepreneur who needed support with the launch of the Fellowship. With a keenness to learn about the challenges at the grassroots level in the rural context, Rahul supported Pratap to strengthen their Fellow & Student Curriculum as well as with Selections — all towards launching their Gramothhan Gram Panchaayat Fellowship to provide holistic education to the unreached children in Odisha.
Kshamtalaya's Partnership with the state - Driving improved systems and outcomes
Vivek Kumar, Founder, Kshamtalya Foundation, and TFIx 2017 Entrepreneur has been extensively working with the Rajasthan State Govt. as a knowledge partner. In partnership with RSCERT, he has facilitated a wellbeing program for 33 District Institutes of Education & Training (DIET) across Rajasthan.
UPDATES
Meghna Chawla, Founder, Foster & Forge, and TFIx 2018 Entrepreneur is working towards transforming the lives of Uttar Pradesh’s schoolchildren through their Beacon Educator Fellowship. Through innovative teaching that realizes the potential within each student to enhance their life, income, and participation in society, her organization is currently working in all 75 districts in UP and reaches 3,000 plus teachers and over 1.5 lakh children.