Teach for Bangladesh, a new countrywide organization, received over five hundred applications this year for its inaugural two-year teaching fellowship. Of the several hundred applicants, only seventeen university graduates and young professionals were selected from both national and international universities as TFB fellows.
The seventeen will be placed full-time this December in low-income NGO and government school across Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
TFB comes on the heels of other global movements comprised of young leaders working towards education reform. Programs like Teach for Nepal, Teach for Pakistan, and Teach for India were adopted after Teach for America met success in education reforms over 20 years ago. Today over 29 countries have adopted similar programs.
As in many countries, access to education in Bangladesh is largely determined by socioeconomic factors and geographic location. School attendance for children from urban slums is 20 percent less than the national average. Bangladesh schools also have low retention rates, and half of students who enter Class 1 drop out before completing Class 5. Crowded schools also pose a problem, the average student to teacher ratio is 67:1. Teach for Bangladesh intends to address these, among many other, education issues.
TFB applicants must be under 35, hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, be either a Bangladeshi citizen or be of Bangladeshi origin, and must speak both Bangla and English. Fellows may receive financial assistance for education debt through scholarships or loans. Some university programs allow fellows to defer admission for two years in order to participate in TFB. Among these schools are Harvard, Colombia, and Tufts University. TFB fellows will mainly teach English, math, and science, and are expected to have a workload of 40-50 hours per week.
Creative Commons Love: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan on Flickr.com
