1. Teach For Malaysia is a non-profit organization that recruits 50 of the country's brightest young professionals to teach for two years in high-need secondary schools, in an effort to close the education gap between low-income and high-income communities. 2. Through its Teach For Malaysia Fellowship program, fellows undergo eight weeks of teacher training and then teach subjects like English, math, science, history and geography while earning a postgraduate diploma in education. 3. The first group of fellows are currently teaching in 17 schools in the Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan regions, with the goal of addressing education inequity by helping ensure a child

1. Heading: Making a difference
s/first: It is the highest form of altruism. Fifty of the nation’s youngest and brightest leave
their comfy well-paying jobs to dedicate two years of their lives to teach children in several of
the country’s ‘high need’ schools. And the organisation that’s making this happen? Teach For
Malaysia. AZILEA BADRI writes.
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I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them lead the way – George Benson
THE story has all the makings of a great social experiment: Take 50 of the country’s
youngest, brightest and most promising intellectuals, put them through an eight-week
teacher training stint, place them in several of the country’s “high-need” secondary schools
for a two-year teaching tenure, and ultimately, watch them make a difference in the lives of
children.
It is a very noble gesture, indeed, considering we live in a time when capitalism and profit-
making are held in high regard, and there aren’t many individuals out there who would want
to leave the plush comforts of their high-paying jobs to pursue something as noble as
teaching children.
The statistics also speaks for itself and reflects the grim reality of the state of education in
our country: Out of every four students, one student in Year Four classrooms does not meet
targeted numeracy levels (Government Transformation Programme Report 2010); three out
of five heads of poor households in Malaysia only have a primary education or less (New
Economic Model For Malaysia Report 2010); and four out of five working Malaysians have
only SPM-level education (Malaysia Economic Monitor: Inclusive Growth, World Bank
2010).
This is where Teach For Malaysia (TFM) aims to make a difference: By closing the education
gap between low-income and high-income communities.
Through its Teach For Malaysia Fellowship (TFMF) programme, the independent non-profit
organisation believes that every child, regardless of social standing, race, creed or religion,
has a right to an excellent education. Modelled after the successful Teach For America
initiative, TFMF is a two-year, full-time and fully-paid leadership development programme
that’s been adapted to suit local needs. TFM is one of 23 partners of the global education
network Teach For All, and the first partner in Southeast Asia.
After a careful and stringent selection process (which includes an online application, phone
interview and a series of assessments), the fellows undergo an eight-week experiential
training programme at the Education Ministry’s Institute Aminuddin Baki in Genting
Highlands. Throughout the two-year fellowship programme, the fellows will be conferred a
postgraduate Diploma in Education, allowing them to continue teaching beyond the two
years.
As for the candidates selected to become fellows, most of them are young, according to
Dzameer Dzulkifli, 28, co-founder and managing director of Teach For Malaysia: “80 per
cent (of the fellows) are under 25, the rest, under 30. Some of them have worked for four

2. years and some of them took a 75 per cent pay cut to become teachers. The salary is paid for
by the Ministry of Education but for all them, it’s about the passion.
“We want to create this social sector that rewards people fairly to do social work. It doesn’t
have to be like a non-governmental organisation because you won’t be able to attract talent
or sustain an organisation that is just purely based on passion. It must make sense and it
must create value.”
To become a fellow, the organisation looks for individuals who have achieved significant
results and demonstrated a range of leadership qualities.
At the time of writing, the programme’s pioneer batch of cohorts (or fellows) are already in
17 schools in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, teaching English, Mathematics,
Science, History and Geography to secondary school students in schools deemed “high-need”
to address education inequity, or simply put, the reality that a child’s origin often determines
the quality of his or her education and life outcomes. Socio-economic factors, school system
factors and prevailing ideologies all contribute to this vicious cycle. The organisation believes
that this issue is one of the most urgent challenges in the country and the world today.
The programme culminates with Teach for Malaysia Week, a week-long event that began on
April 16 where personalities from the worlds of finance, business, entertainment and the civil
service spend a day in the classroom with TFM fellows and share their experience and
inspire the children. Some of the personalities include Raja Tan Sri Datuk Seri Arshad Raja
Tun Uda, Khazanah board member and chairman of Maxis, Datuk Sri Idris Jala of Pemandu,
Tan Sri Datuk Seri Jeffrey Cheah, chief executive officer of the Sunway Group, classical
Indian dancer January Low and funnyman Harith Iskander, among others.
“It is our hope that having such a distinguished roster of participants will give students in
high need schools something to aspire to,” says Dzameer. “At the same time, we want to
inspire others with the great work being done in classrooms all over the country, both by our
fellows and by other teachers.”
Dzameer adds that TFM is currently working with the Education Ministry to expand the
programme to primary schools . “We want to create change through the system. From an
education point of view, it is a really mind-blowing concept.”
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