The best and the brightest are being recruited for Teach For Malaysia to effect change in the education landscape.
BE part of a movement which aims to ensure all Malaysian children receive a fair chance in schools.
Inspired by Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp, two Malaysians are bravely taking the challenge of starting a similar programme here.
Aptly named Teach For Malaysia, participants of the programme who will be known as “fellows”, will commit themselves as teachers for two years in “high need” schools around the country.
Teach For Malaysia co-founders Keeran Sivarajah and Dzameer Dzulkifli were inspired by Kopp’s decision to launch a movement to improve public education in the United States.
“We want to attract the best and brightest Malaysian graduates to teach for two years at schools.
“We are enlisting Malaysia’s most outstanding youth in our mission to end education inequity,” said Keeran.
Dedicated: Co-founders Keeran (left) and Dzameer have started the Teach For Malaysia programme here. The programme’s vision, he said, is “for all children in Malaysia to have the opportunity to attain an excellent education”.
Eventually its alumni would form an influential network of leaders, committed in their pursuit of expanding educational opportunities from within and outside the (education) sector.
Keeran who is also executive director, said Teach For Malaysia is a partner of the global education network, Teach For All, that is expanding educational opportunities in 19 countries around the world including Australia, China, India, Lebanon and Pakistan.
He said education inequity is the reality and a child’s origin often determines the quality of his or her education, and therefore life outcomes.
“Teach For Malaysia believes that this challenge - that a child’s origin often determines the quality of his or her education, and therefore his or her life outcomes - can be solved if our nation’s next generation of leaders immerse themselves in understanding the root causes of education inequity, and work together in schools and across various sectors to solve them.
“We are enlisting the support of Malaysia’s most promising future leaders in our journey to make a difference. Be a part of the change, and Teach For Malaysia,” he explained.
Both Dzameer and Keeran have volunteered their teaching services.
“I volunteer as a teacher as my 88-year-old grandmother who is a former teacher and social worker herself, was teaching the children English and kept on mentioning at dinner that they needed a Mathematics teacher.
“After a couple of months, I decided to give up my Saturday afternoons and never looked back,” he shared.
Dzameer who has a masters in engineering from the UK, said he always found teaching an interesting profession but never considered it as a career move until he applied for the Teach First programme in the UK.
“Unfortunately, due to visa constraints, I was unable to join the programme,” he added.
Keeran volunteered in a school in Melbourne, Australia when he was studying for an undergraduate degree in finance.
“I taught the children of refugees from Africa,” he added.
The idea to start the Teach For Malaysia programme was mooted by Keeran and Dzameer, and launched by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin last December.
Under the programme, he said, outstanding graduates and young professionals from all disciplines would be recruited to teach at under-performing schools. He encouraged high-performing graduates who want to contribute to the country to take up this challenge.
Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, said Teach For Malaysia was in line with the Education National Key Results Area (NKRA) to enable access to quality education for all.
Participants, he added, would be employed as full-time teachers and serve in the schools for two years.
“Teach For Malaysia marks an important milestone in the Government’s effort to enhance the standard of the teaching profession and attract the best brains to teach,” he said.
Keeran explained that the programme’s mission was to build a movement of leaders who would eliminate inequity in education.
Teach For Malaysia fellows will serve as full time teachers for two years in high-need schools, and commit to transforming the education outcomes of less-privileged schoolchildren, through significantly improving their achievements and aspirations.
In the long term, Teach For Malaysia ambassadors would form a different class of leaders, working in various fields to expand education opportunity for all children in Malaysia.
“We hope to recruit 50 graduates and young professionals for the initial cohort of the programme who will commence teaching when the new school session begins in January 2012,” he said.
Dr Ruhaya Hassan who is head of the Teach For Malaysia taskforce at Institut Aminuddin Baki, said they are working closely with the team behind the programme on training the potential fellows who will be placed in schools next January.
“We have identified the secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Negri Sembilan where we will place the fellows,” she told StarEducate.
Full support
Fellows will be provided with intensive training and support throughout their two years, added Keeran.
On the training provided, he said it was heavily centred around the Teaching as Leadership framework that stems from the idea that excellent teachers, irrespective of subject, student age or school context, operate on the same principles that are common to excellent leaders in all sectors.
“The Teaching as Leadership framework was created by Teach For America, by gathering and evaluating data on student achievement from thousands of Teach For America classrooms, where they were able to learn about the distinguishing methods of teachers whose students were demonstrating dramatic academic progress.
“Our fellows will undergo an intensive six to eight week residential programme in November and our end goal is that they be equipped with the necessary skills from day one in the classrooms.
“Once they are placed in classrooms in schools, they will have the full support of an individual personal leadership development officer who continually monitors their performance,” he said.
Working in collaboration with the Education Ministry, Keeran said a senior school teacher would be assigned as a mentor to each fellow to ease their transition into a school.
At the same time, he said, fellows will work towards obtaining a postgraduate diploma in education by attending either evening or weekend classes, making them fully qualified teachers.
The expected salary, he added, would be competitive to what was offered in the private sector.
Teach For Malaysia recruitment director Su En Yong said the team has been travelling to meet Malaysian students in top universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Malaysia.
“The feedback we have been getting is that it is their vision to make Malaysia a better place. They have been looking at a platform such as Teach For Malaysia where they feel they can make an impact on a larger scale,” she said.
Keeran said the Teach For Malaysia team has been setting the groundwork for the fellows by meeting the secondary school principals.
“They are prepared to listen to ideas and will have dedicated teachers who will assist the fellows once they posted to the schools,” he said.
It will be an exciting time, said Yong, when the fellows start their posting as they will be considered leaders in the classroom.
But it is not all about teaching as the two-year programme will equip the fellows with the training, experience and support to become inspirational leaders, both in the classroom and beyond.
“The fellows go beyond teaching as they will become part of a network of like-minded individuals who will effect change in the future,” she said.
During their two-year commitment, fellows will be expected to confront and tackle a host of challenges, motivate diverse stakeholders to work hard towards a shared vision, create and adjust plans to move further towards their goals, and gain the confidence they need to succeed.
According to Keeran, fellows will be leaders in both the classroom and the community.
Fellows believe in the potential of all students to achieve and succeed, regardless of their origin.
They do so by getting to know their students in and out of the classroom; creating plans to match students’ needs; teach in an engaging manner; work with other teachers, administrators and community members to build skills and obtain resources for the classroom; and analyse assessments to ensure that students are progressing towards their academic goals.
At the same time, Keeran said fellows are expected to implement a transformational project in the school or community in which they serve.
Fellows choose to tackle one primary challenge to students’ achievement (after discussions with school and community leaders), and create innovative and sustainable solutions to this problem.
Yong said fellows will work with a business coach from the private sector to do so.
By designing, implementing and managing a small-scale, sustainable project within the school community, fellows will build upon their leadership and project management skills.
Fellows can also use the leadership and management skills from carrying out the project once they have completed their teaching commitments and decide to opt for other career paths.
There are staggered closing dates for application to the Teach For Malaysia programme to suit the graduation dates of students studying in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The next closing date is on June 6.
The Star
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