Vision

We envision a society in which all children receive an excellent education that empowers them to realize their full potential and shape their own future through talent and hard work.

Mission

Our mission is to launch a movement of capable, committed, and compassionate leaders who share an understanding of inequity and are working tirelessly inside and outside the nation’s classrooms to end its impact on children.

Vision for Children

All children know that they were born inherently powerful and worthy of love, dignity, and belonging. They know that anything is possible and that the future is theirs to create. They know and find appreciative joy in the things that make them, their communities, and others unique in the world. They think critically and creatively when they encounter adversity, treating every experience as an opportunity to learn and grow. They are curious about the world around them and move through it with awareness and agency. They are lifelong learners in pursuit of holistic growth and wellbeing. They are strong readers and mathematicians who can read and write the world around them. They are acquiring the knowledge and skills that will enable them to make informed choices about their lives in school and outside school. Children engage with educators and other adults as learners, working to unlock their full potential and their communities’ potential towards building a just Bangladesh and world.

Vision for Educators

Educators create and hold spaces of love, safety, joy, and healing for children, particularly those from communities that have experienced deprivation and oppression. Educators have the skills, tools, and support to be successful practitioners and meet their students’ diverse needs. Educators are lifelong learners, continuously learning from and with their students, colleagues, mentors, and others. They invite children into curious inquiry and investigation of the world. They support students to gain the knowledge and skills to make informed choices – including critical thinking skills and proficiency in core academic subjects. They nurture in students self-awareness, agency, and a growth mindset. Educators work in close relationships with children and their families, affirming their identities, competence, and dignity. They are continuously working to understand their own social identities and connection to the systems of oppression that impact their students.

Vision for Bangladesh

Our society treats all children and communities as worthy of love, dignity, and belonging. All children can expect their basic needs to be met: safety, housing, balanced nutrition, clean water and sanitation, healthcare, protection from physical, sexual, emotional violence, and abuse. Educators, schools, and communities have the resources to support the holistic development of children and meet their diverse needs. The voices of students and educators – particularly those in communities that have experienced oppression – influence the national narrative on education and the policy and practice in the education sector. Children, parents, and educators are engaged with a coalition of policy-makers, school leaders, and other leaders (public officials, business leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, religious leaders, service providers, and others) to build the future they want for themselves and their communities.

Our Theory of Change

Teach For Bangladesh is passionate about bringing change in the education system of Bangladesh in two ways. First, our Fellows begin as highly skilled teachers ensuring proper learning opportunities for children in vulnerable communities. And then, as Alumni, they continue to drive change in education towards our vision for an equitable society

Here is a snapshot of how our model catalyzes a generation of Bangladeshi leaders in service of our education system:

The Teach For Bangladesh Fellowship recruits high-potential graduates from top universities, and trains and deploys them as full-time teachers in under-resourced schools for 2 years.
Fellows cultivate essential teaching skills, self-awareness, problem-solving, relationship building, and other leadership skills to develop a personal connection with students and communities, and a passion to work for an equitable future for all children.
After completing the Fellowship, Alumni build on their experience to drive impact in the education sector of Bangladesh , in partnership with students, families, schools, communities, and the broader TFB movement.

Our Core Values

Integrity

We speak and act with honesty and authenticity. We align our actions to our values and to our word.

Ownership

We take personal responsibility for the results we have in the world. We actively shape our experience, working with purpose and urgency towards our goals.

Interdependence

We operate with the awareness that we are all interconnected, that unless we all win, we all lose. We take responsibility for one another, and for the wellness of our collective.

Sense of Possibility

We know that the power and potential of all people are without limit. We take bold action to create the future that we truly want.

Respect & Empathy

We know, respect and celebrate the things that make us and others unique in the world. We embrace our differences as a strength, seeking first to understand and then to be understood.

Continuous Learning

We pursue learning and growth with curiosity and open hearts, as individuals and as a collective.

Our Story

Teach For Bangladesh was founded in 2012 by educator-turned-social entrepreneur Maimuna Ahmad. Maimuna grew up between Dhaka and the suburbs of Washington D.C, witnessing from a young age how systematic disparities persisted through generations, impacting the people and communities around her in both countries.

TFB Founder Maimuna Ahmad started as a secondary mathematics teacher in
Washington D.C. in 2009

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Maimuna joined Teach For America, teaching secondary school mathematics to 150 underserved students at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School in Washington, D.C, for two years. The experience inspired her to complete her M.A. in teaching from American University and return to work in Bangladesh. She set up Teach For Bangladesh with her savings as a public school teacher with the vision to mobilize a generation of Bangladeshi leaders working to end disparity in our education system.

Our first cohort of 12 Fellows began teaching in underserved primary schools in Dhaka in 2014. By 2019, Teach For Bangladesh had 150 Fellows teaching across Bangladesh’s two largest urban centers, Dhaka and Chattogram. In our first decade of operation, more than 12,000 young Bangladeshis have applied to teach in low-income schools through the Teach For Bangladesh Fellowship in a country where it was previously inconceivable that talented graduates with many opportunities available would compete to become teachers in under-resourced schools.

In 2021, we expanded the Fellowship program to secondary schools and are in process of launching in rural, remote, and education-in-emergency contexts in Bangladesh. The program has produced more than 200 Alumni working across the public, private, and non-profit organizations in Bangladesh. Our Alumni are educators, teacher-trainers, school, organization, and community leaders, policy advocates, resource mobilizers, education researchers, Acumen, Chevening, Erasmus Fellows, and more, working in service of our vision of an equitable society and education system for all children.

Moments from Our Journey

May 2013: Wendy Kopp, CEO, Teach For All, speaks at the Teach For Bangladesh launch event.
November 2013: TFB holds the Opening Ceremony for the first Winter Academy, welcoming the first cohort of TFB Fellows in BRAC CDM in Rajendrapur.
March 2014: Zarifa Zakaria, one of the first TFB Fellows, is with her students in Mirpur Sher-E-Bangla Government Primary School.
August 2014: TFB Founder Maimuna Ahmad takes a selfie with BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed and Teach For All CEO Wendy Kopp, on their way to visit TFB and BRAC classrooms. Sir Abed said this was his first ever “selfie.”
August 2014: Our founder Maimuna Ahmad receives “Anannya Shirsho 10” Award for her contribution in education sector.
November 2014: New TFB Fellow Sadia Afrin participates in a practice teaching session at the second Winter Acdemy.
January 2016: The first cohort of TFB Fellows complete their two year Fellowship and are welcomed into the Alumni Movement at our first Alumni Induction Ceremony.
January 2016: Our supporter and champion Dr. Rubana Huq officially welcomes our first cohort into Alumnihood.
January 2017: Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Daily Star newspaper, welcomes our second cohort to Alumnihood at their Alumni Induction ceremony.
2017: Our project “Empowering Young Minds to Save Lives“ with Deutsche Post DHL Group wins the Best Education Award at the Asia Best CSR Practices Awards in Singapore.
2018: Imran Rahman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liberal Arts, speaks at the Alumni Induction event at the TFB office in Dhaka.
2019: TFB launches its operations in Chattogram with a dedicated regional team. Here TFB Fellows and teachers are seen at a school in Chattogram with the Head Teacher.
December 2020: Our Fellows ensured learning never stopped for their students through regular low-tech and no-tech regular communication during school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
March 2022: TFB initiates its 10th anniversary celebrations by launching the Bangladesh Youth Development Initiative (BYDI) in partnership with the U.S. Embassy Bangladesh. US Undersecretary of the State for Political Affairs Ambassador Victoria Nuland joins Maimuna Ahmad and Muskan, student leader the launch event in Dhaka.

Our Global Movement

Teach For Bangladesh is a partner of Teach For All, a global network of 60+ independent partner organizations, and an organization that works to accelerate the network’s progress. Each network partner recruits and develops promising future leaders to teach in their nations’ under-resourced schools and communities. With this foundation, to work with others, inside and outside of education, to ensure all children can fulfill their potential.

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