TEACH FOR MALAYSIA

Outstanding graduates and young professionals will be recruited to teach at under-performing schools under the Teach for Malaysia programme. High-performing graduates who wanted to contribute to the country were encouraged to take up this challenge.

Teach for Malaysia was in line with the Education National Key Results Area (NKRA) to enable access to quality education for all and also try to emulate the success of Teach for America and the Teach First programme in Britain where the graduates enlisted are able to improve the performance of students from challenging schools.

The programme participants would undergo an intensive eight-week training stint before being placed at low-performing schools in the Band 6 and 7 rankings. Teach for Malaysia Fellows will serve as full-time teachers for two years in high-need schools, and commit to transform 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.

Teach for Malaysia, which was first announced under the 10th Malaysia Plan, is a key human capital and public-private partnership initiative to attract top talent into the teaching profession. A non-profit organisation, Teach for Malaysia is a partner organisation of Teach for All, an international body which enlists top college graduates to teach in high-poverty areas in its mission to eradicate education inequity.

Malaysia is the first country in South-East Asia and the third in Asia to introduce this programme. TFM 2012 Fellowship applications are now open. First Deadline is 21 March and Second Deadline is 27 June. The organisation aimed to recruit 50 graduates and young professionals for the initial batch of the programme. They will commence teaching when the new school session begins in January 2012.

Those interested should go to www.teachformalaysia.org.