Azim Premji Foundation announces unique education fellowship programme

The Azim Premji Foundation has announced a fellowship programme for fresh post graduate students to enable them to study  various aspects of the Indian education system. The two-year full-time programme aims at giving the fellows knowledge about rural government schools through an experiential model.

"Any large scale educational change requires significant and sustained effort and can only be achieved through working at multiple levels as well as on several areas simultaneously," says Prashant Kothadiya, Communication and Youth Engagement, Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore. 

With its ever increasing population, India will undoubtedly require trained professionals to provide future leadership in promoting and achieving quality education. "This is why the Foundation offers various educational programmes including this fellowship," Kothadiya informs.

This programme is rigorous and comprises a classroom module spread over five weeks. Aiming at strengthening the conceptual understanding of education and development issues, the programme also includes 22 months of intense field engagement at the grass roots level in states like Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Puducherry, Rajasthan and  Uttarakhand.

The admission process is in two stages: stage 1, an online assessment that tests a candidate's socio-economic geographical and political understanding and also his/her comprehension, writing and analytical ability. 
In stage 2, selected candidates have to appear for a personal interview and also make a presentation on a given topic.

The selected fellows are then be placed in various institutes and functions. They have to participate in capacity building workshops, youth forums, Volunteer Teachers Forum (VTF), research surveys, co-developing teacher learning material, documentation and reports, data analysis, visiting and observing blocks, community, schools, teachers, head teachers, children under the ambit of NCF, RTE etc. 

The fellows also participate in an online course titled "Deepening Perspectives in Education" which comprises modules such as: children and childhood, teachers and teaching, school, school systems and community.

Apart from this, the fellows are also involved in a 10 month project on various topics such as: technology enabled item bank, multilingualism in the light of mother tongue based approach and how it affects the student achievement. They are also involved in analysis of the post workshop follows up on education and leadership management.

"Upon successful completion of the two year programme, fellows get a certification by the Foundation/ Universities and the interested candidates will also get employment opportunities to work with Azim Premji Foundation," concludes Kothadiya.