I recently joined Teach For India, an organization that focuses on teaching low-income government, private and public schools across 7 states in India. This model was replicated from Teach For America.
The Educational Crisis
The idea of Teach for India is to bring India’s brightest & most promising youth to teach in under-resourced classrooms across India. The educational crisis goes so deep that most kids in grade 5 can’t read a grade 2-level text. there is a severe disconnect. Hence, the Delhi Government decided to start ‘Mission Buniyad’ to spread foundational and numeracy literacy which only further exacerbated the educational inequity.
Why I Joined the Movement
With that, I joined the movement because I wanted to be a better teacher and make a difference in the lives of children. Because my past work experience was not as rigorous, I wanted to be properly taught.
picture of class 4 & 5 teaching them flags of different nations in Bageshwar, Uttarakhand
A movie that brought back my WHY
That’s exactly when a friend I met I met four years ago on a one-week trek messaged me that she watched a movie called ‘Lunana: A Yak in a Classroom.’
That’s when I realised it’s most important to have reminders when embarking on challenging journeys such as this. The movie is based on a true story of how an aspiring Bhutanese singer was in his last year serving in the government and how he was sent to the remotest village in Bhutan to teach kids. This movie was Bhutan’s second Oscar-nominated film, and the only reason it was made ineligible was due to the country did not have an official selection committee in place. 
The picture was taken from the NPR website
Back to the inspiring story is that the young man travelled 5 days in a van, and trekked for a week to a population of 50. The countless challenges he faced living there reminded me of my time in lohajung teaching kids and how enriching it was just taking up a challenge!
That’s when I decided to open a new Instagram, called the ‘The Delhi Girl Teaches’ account dedicated to collecting artefacts of why I teach to serve as a reminder for myself in case I ever lose my purpose I always have a place to reflect.
Bibliography
- 50% Class V students can’t read Class 2 text: Report – Business Standard
- 5 cr elementary students can’t read, write basic text – Tribune India
- NPR Picture Credits
The Delhi Girl Explores 
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