Teach For Bangladesh (TFB) is an organisation with an ambitious and radical new idea to solve one of the oldest and most entrenched injustices in our country: educational disparity. Today in Bangladesh, the opportunity for children to access quality education is largely determined by the socio-economic conditions of their birth.
Although our education system is making steady advances, the disparity persists. Teach For Bangladesh believes that to change this reality, there is a necessity for bold new leadership across the social, economic, political and cultural spheres. The organisation is seeking “to build a movement of diverse and capable leaders across all sectors of society who share an understanding of education inequity and a commitment to ending it.”
In pursuit of this mission, Teach For Bangladesh is enlisting the most talented and most passionate of Bangladeshi young adults, graduating from diverse disciplines in universities at home and abroad, to a two-year leadership development Fellowship, during which they teach full-time in low-income schools.
Teach For Bangladesh received over five hundred applications for their inaugural Fellowship batch this year. The top seventeen have been selected from various national and international universities. These Fellows will undergo six weeks of intensive pre-service training starting this November and then be placed in low-income government and NGO schools across Dhaka to teach.
During the two years of their commitment, they will work to bridge the massive achievement gap in their respective classrooms and put their students on an improved life trajectory. After the Fellowship, they will continue to impact educational inequity at a systemic level as leaders in the fields of social entrepreneurship, policy-making, healthcare, engineering, business, development, and of course, education.
Teach For Bangladesh Fellows join a global movement of young leaders from around the world who have joined programmes like Teach For India, Teach For Pakistan, Teach For Nepal, and Teach For Malaysia. Currently there are 29 countries, which have adopted and adapted the model that was pioneered with immense success over 20 years ago in the United States by Teach For America and in the United Kingdom by Teach First.
This week, we talk with Zarifa Zakaria who has been chosen among Teach For Bangladesh’s inaugural batch of 17 Fellows.
Tell us a little about your education background.
I passed my SSC exam from Shaheed Bir Uttam Lt. Anwar Girls’ College and HSC from SOS Hermann Gmeiner College, Dhaka. Then I did my undergrads from Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka. I am currently enrolled in a Masters programme with the Department of Educational Psychology, Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka.
When did you first notice a disparity in our education system; have you always wanted to do something about it?
Throughout my childhood, I saw my mother trying to enrol child servants in low income schools but their families never encouraged it. She was successful in enrolling only two of them but they too did not continue. As time passed I saw some of them get married and a few start working in the garment industry. They lived in the neighbourhood and were like friends to me. I wanted to see them at school but I did not know how to pursue them. This disappointment inside me slowly changed into a drive to work for the education system of our country.
Please share a little bit about TFB that you have come to experience till now.
The three exhaustive steps of screening of the selection process were my first experience with TFB. They have highly qualified professionals recruiting individuals having very good academic background, efficient leadership skills and strong professional traits. Till now I have seen the TFB team working tremendously hard with the pursuit of equity in education in Bangladesh.
What led you towards TFB as opposed to the conventional options?
Any other conventional options did not offer an opportunity to work in a low income school and take the challenge to have an impact on the education of poverty stricken children and their families within two years time. As a Fellow, TFB will be providing me with intensive leadership training for professional development and a good amount of stipend through these years. Furthermore, as TFB is a partner of Teach for All, I expect to be a part of the global movement on Educational equity.
The TFB Fellowship programme is one that is highly selective. In your opinion, which of your achievements and roles set you apart from your peers?
Well, I am a very get-up-and-go kind of person. Unlike many others, I volunteer spontaneously on social issues where I think I have the capability to help. My involvement does not limit to academic activities and volunteering, I also participate in extracurricular activities. I am a final year student of Nazrul Sangeet at Chhayanaut Shangeet Bidyayatan.
Do you plan to remain in the Education sector following the completion of your two-year Fellowship or do you plan on bringing the professional development and training you receive to another field?
Yes, I plan to work in the field of Education after the two years of Fellowship.
Where do you see yourself two years from now, at the end of your Fellowship?
In a movie night arranged by TFB Recruitment Team, we watched a movie together on the true story of a teacher named Mr Jaime Escalante. In his words, “Who better qualify to be the leader than the teacher?” At the end of my fellowship I want to see myself as a successful leader who contributed in building the visions of the students.
What is your dream for the children of Bangladesh?
I dream all the children of Bangladesh will have equal access to quality education. I want to see them grow up to be highly moral, intellectual and social beings.
