Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who launched the programme yesterday, said high-performing graduates who wanted to contribute to the country were encouraged to take up this challenge.
“I am glad that the best among our graduates have shown interest in joining the teaching profession,” said Muhyiddin in his keynote address here yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, said Teach for Malaysia was in line with the Education National Key Results Area (NKRA) to enable access to quality education for all.
“We hope 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,” he added.
Muhyiddin said 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.
The participants will be employed as full-time teachers and serve in the schools for two years.
“Teach for Malaysia marks an important milestone in the Government’s effort to enhance the standard of the teaching profession and attract the best brains to teach,” he said.
He expressed hope that those who were recruited would continue teaching after the end of their tenure.
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.
Applications for the Teach for Malaysia programme open on Jan 11.
Teach for Malaysia co-founders Dzameer Dzulkifli and Keeran Sivarajah said 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 http://www.teachformalaysia.org/
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