World Teachers’ Day: 5 NGOs to support

THE quote above by Guy Kawasaki emphasizes the crucial role teachers have in shaping who children will grow up to become. World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on October 5th in many parts of the world to celebrate teachers. Established by UNESCO and celebrated since 1994, World Teachers’ Day is an opportunity to go beyond celebrating teachers but understanding their important role in raising a child and addressing their challenges and needs.

Here are 5 NGOs that support teachers:

321 Education Foundation

321 Education Foundation has provided programs to educators with the goal of offering quality education to the most marginalized students. PARaM is its core capacity-building program that aims to improve FLN (foundational literacy and numeracy). 321 Education Foundation has conducted multiple programs to train teachers and improve teaching-learning practices in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, resulting in an 18% improvement in teaching performance across 80 schools. The NGO has impacted 300,000 students and 25,000 teachers in 2,000 schools through its multiple initiatives since 2012. The name 321 comes from this Mumbai-based NGO’s commitment to their three core values that guide them in improving education for all. To support 321 Education Foundation, you can donate here.

Evidyaloka Trust

The core focus of Evidyaloka Trust is to connect volunteer teachers to rural government schools by leveraging technology. Based in Bengaluru, Evidyaloka Trust ensures that passionate teachers have the opportunity to transform the lives of children aged 10-14 in rural India using interactive teaching methods and creating digital classrooms. The NGO focuses on the dual problem of teacher shortages and teaching quality and offers a teaching model that uses vernacular teaching using digital solutions to bring high-quality education to students with the greatest need. Evidyaloka Trust has impacted 5 million students in 620+ digital classrooms in over 490 villages across India. To support Evidyaloka Trust, you can donate here.

Teach For India

Teach For India allows enthusiastic individuals who are passionate about teaching and education to become full-time teachers to students from underserved communities, through its fellowship program. Once in their classrooms, Teach For India fellows have the opportunity to give their students the platform for personal growth and development, learning critical skills and tapping into their individual interests and abilities. Founded in 2009, Teach For India works with multiple stakeholders including school principals and parents to ensure that all students have access to an education. Teach For India has over 4,500 teachers in its fellowship network who have educated over 50 million children across India. To support Teach For India, you can donate here. 

Meghshala Trust

Meghshala Trust’s motto is “empowered teachers lead enlightened classrooms”. The NGO focuses on the teacher, believing that if teachers are equipped and empowered, a child’s academic future will be greatly improved. Meghshala Trust offers a comprehensive curriculum created by experienced educators which contain training recommendations that build teaching practices, especially in a digital setting. The lesson plans make use of images, videos and interactive activities to enhance student learning and improve pedagogy strategies and practices. Since 2013, Meghshala Trust has created over 7,000 lessons in English and vernacular languages to over 17,100 users across five states. To support Meghshala Trust, you can donate here. 

Peepul

Peepul provides teachers with comprehensive training to build their skills and help them build nurturing student-teacher relationships and use impactful teaching methods in the classroom. The teacher training program focuses on lesson plans, classroom management and being mindful of the important role that the teacher plays in enhancing the overall academic performance of the school. To ensure that student learning is effective, Peepul partners with government schools to up-skill teachers using the latest teaching techniques. Based in New Delhi, Peepul works in government schools across Delhi and Madhya Pradesh to strengthen the mentoring and coaching capacity of teachers and constantly monitor school performance, offering data-based support to ensure that the most marginalized children in the country have access to impactful education. To support Peepul, you can donate here.  

“Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques.” This World Teachers’ Day, let’s invest in the future of India by supporting, enabling and building up teachers. You can show your support by donating to these 5 NGOs making remarkable progress in education.

Shirley Bobby

Shirley has been in the development sector for over 10 years and is passionate about making a change in the world around her, including adopting dogs and writing to make a difference.