Shikshagraha, the people-powered movement working to strengthen one million public schools across India, has announced Teach For India as its newest momentum partner.
The partnership brings Teach For India’s 17 years of experience in developing teachers, young leaders and alumni to a movement that has mobilised more than 3.9 lakh leaders across 2.1 lakh public schools and triggered over 15.6 lakh micro-improvements, including nearly 45,000 community-led improvements.
The collaboration combines Teach For India’s experience in building individual leadership from classrooms outward with Shikshagraha’s network of more than 40 civil society organisations across 16 states.
“Real change begins when someone decides to stop watching and start acting. For 17 years, Teach For India’s Fellows and Alumni have made that choice — in classrooms, communities and far beyond them. Shikshagraha is built on the same belief: that transforming public education is not the work of a few organisations, but the work of millions of people choosing to act, learn and improve together. We are delighted to welcome Teach For India into the Shikshagraha network. Together, we hope to connect and amplify the agency of teachers, parents, young leaders, communities and institutions, so that every child can experience a school where they are seen, supported and given the opportunity to flourish and be future-ready,” said Khushboo Awasthi, Chief Curator, Shikshagraha.
Since 2009, Teach For India’s Fellowship and Alumni network has focused on developing leadership within classrooms and communities.
“For 17 years, our Fellows and Alumni have shown us the power of the collective, and that the person in the room closest to a child’s education is also the person most capable of transforming it. Shikshagraha’s vision of a movement of a million schools, led not by any one organisation but by millions of people choosing to act, is exactly the kind of shared vision that will shift the needle in education. This collective values the depth it takes to nurture leadership, and the vast network it takes to connect that leadership to a national movement. Working together means Teach For India Fellows and Alumni get a bigger canvas for the change they’re already making, and every child gets more adults, in more places, working together to unleash their greatest potential,” said Shaheen Mistri, CEO, Teach For India.
Over the coming year, the partnership will focus on leadership and fellowship design, participation of Teach For India’s Fellows and Alumni across geographies, and a shared national narrative around leadership, student voice and agency.
