Art of the possible

How a young, non-profit organisation is changing what society thinks about education inequality

DZAMEER Dzulkifli has witnessed first hand how education can influence the course of a person’s life.

His brother – younger by two years – was diagnosed with ADHD and dylexia which led the school to write him off as difficult and disruptive.

The teachers were constantly comparing him with Dzameer who recalls he had it “quite easy,” scoring good grades in class and getting along well with his teachers and peers. At one point, it was thought that his brother would not pass secondary school.

“This troubled me as I knew my brother was quite intelligent but I did not know how to help him,” Dzameer recalled during a phone conversation with thesundaypost.

Thankfully, their parents also believed the school was wrong and subsequently enrolled Dzameer’s brother in a different school which could support his academic growth and development.

Fast forward a few years, Dzameer’s brother finished secondary school and went on to pursue his passion for the environment with a degree in zoology.

Not only did his field job in Danum, Sabah, pay three times more than what his elder brother was earning then with an international consulting firm in Kuala Lumpur, but when a career advancement opportunity opened, this bright young man, once branded a failure by his teachers, was given the choice of studying in one of two internationally renowned institutions of higher education – the University of Zurich or the University of Cambridge – for his PhD.

He picked the former and now spends six months a year in Switzerland and the remaining part of the year in the rainforests of Sabah collecting research data, doing what he loves to do.

Dzameer, who holds a degree in mechanical engineering, is very proud of his brother but the different experiences they had in school and different paths they took got him thinking. In the end, it proved an important turning point for himself as well.

“First, I realised you have to follow your passion to be successful in life. After a lot of thinking and working and talking with clients and friends, I realised my passion was in helping and developing other people,” Dzameer said.

“Number two, if my brother who was deemed a failure in a private school never realised his potential to do world-class research on the reforestation of our rainforests, how many other kids are we losing out on in the current system?

“It underlines the sense of urgency of how big of a challenge we have in that a child’s background mostly determines his future.”

These insights inspired Dzameer to delve even deeper into education, including finding out more about Teach First which trains and supports people with leadership potential to become inspirational teachers in schools in low income communities across the UK.

His then colleague suggested they set up something similar in Malaysia. Although both of them lacked education or management backgrounds, they decided to take the leap of faith and founded Teach For Malaysia (TFM) three years ago.

Today, the quietly charismatic Dzameer also serves as managing director for this young non-profit organisation seeking to recruit and mobilise high-potential young professionals and future leaders to end education inequality in Malaysia.

Answering the call

Every year, hundreds of Malaysian students in high-need communities and schools are getting left behind, trapped by a vicious cycle of socio-economic factors, systemic weaknesses and lack of resources in the education system, and self-defeating social ideologies.

These factors feed off each other, making it an extremely difficult, if not impossible, task for any child born into a disadvantaged socio-economic situation to break free of its circumstances without concerted intervention from outside forces.

TFM actively recruits high-achieving final year university students and young professionals into two-year teaching fellowship programmes and places them in high-need schools across the country. After two years, Fellows have the option of continuing as teachers or going on to further their careers in their respective fields.

They are now operating in 43 high-need schools across Perak, Penang, Kedah, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur, with plans to expand to East Malaysia by 2015 or 2016.

Not only that, TFM has managed to enlist some of the most respected names in Malaysian business and education circles to sit on their board of trustees.

It also receives support from the Education Ministry, various government-linked agencies and some of the most recognised corporate companies in Malaysian and international business.

Their goal is not only to have an immediate impact by sending teachers to where they are needed the most but in the longer term, to instill greater awareness about education inequality in Fellows who – because of their propensity to be high-achievers – are likely to go on to assume positions of leadership and management in private and public sector organisations.

Because of their first-hand experience, these alumni will hopefully go on to influence decisions, affecting the country’s education policies and help form a valuable network of practical advice and support to new intakes of Fellows carrying on the momentum to end education inequality.

Talent, learning and leadership

Everything TFM does is basically centered on talent, leadership and learning – how to attract, train, manage, develop and retain them for the benefit of the students, schools, and Fellows. They employ the same focus when it comes to recruiting their administrative staff as they believe it takes talent to support talent.

While this may seem like commonsense to most people, it’s a problem many organisations struggle with. So how does TFM make it work when so many others with better resources have failed?

“I guess we have the benefit of inexperience,” Dzameer laughed.

“All of us are young and we have trustees on our board who believe in talent. Our mindset is as long as we focus on getting the right talent and building the environment for them to perform, we can get it done.

“We didn’t have any destructive legacies and entrenched beliefs which could have undone what TFM was doing. It’s all about timing and supporters and starting things small – one classroom, one school, one district at a time. So from an intra-organisational point of view with TFM, it was easy.

“Yes, we do encounter barriers and resistance from certain parties and we are realistic about the challenges we face. It’s all about finding supporters at the end of the day. Talent tends to attract like-minded talent.”

To illustrate this point, Dzameer shared that the non-profit organisation employs the approach of setting difficult “crazy goals” then looking for “leaders crazy enough to do them.”

“Guess what? That’s the kind of people we find,” he laughed.

“There’s no secret formula to how we make it work.”

There may be no secret formula but it doesn’t diminish the magnitude of the challenges TFM faces in its audacious aim to help tackle the daunting problem of education inequality – a David-Goliath standoff if you will.

Like David, it employs some very smart and effective business and marketing strategies.

For example, how does a non-profit organisation persuade the nation’s best and brightest that committing two years of their lives to teaching in high-need communities is a good move versus working over the same period for bigger and better funded entities which offer longer-term and more lucrative career opportunities?

Part of the answer is to focus their recruitment efforts on people who believe they can make a positive difference to education inequality and on developing leadership skills and attributes that are just as applicable in life and corporate work as in a classroom.

To reach their target audience, TFM also runs a youth-savvy publicity campaign, roping in Malaysian personalities and celebrities to support their causes online and offline through print, social media and networking websites.

And it works. Annually, the number of applications TFM receives usually far exceeds that of positions available.

During its first recruitment drive in 2012, TFM received 869 applications, out of which 50 were accepted as Fellows.

In 2013, the number of applications leaped to 1,350. Originally, TFM had targeted to fill 70 fellowship positions but for various reasons, including the applicant’s parents, career and industry concerns, only 54 applicants took up the offer.

Dzameer pointed out that fellowships were full-time and fully paid positions on par with what other young graduates can expect to earn in other comparable sectors.

Not only that, all Fellows will receive a full scholarship to obtain a teaching qualification accredited by the Education Ministry by the end of the first year, so Fellows can continue to teach after their fellowship is over, if they choose to do so.

Big goals

The goals and standards set for TFM Fellows are high, but the non-profit organsaition believes in setting its Fellows up for success so that they can perform to the highest level of their potential and abilities, Dzameer explained.

They also put their corporate and alumni network to good use, enlisting their help and professional expertise to provide practical advice, support and mentorship to current Fellows.

All Fellows must undergo eight weeks of intensive training during which they must prepare and conduct a learning camp for students in real schools during school holidays.

Throughout the two-year fellowship, Fellows are expected to carry the same workload as other teachers employed by the Education Ministry while continuing their training with TFM, in addition to researching, designing and implementing a sustainable project that will benefit the school community they are serving in.

As anyone who has been or is a teacher knows, teaching is a tough responsibility, more so when the disadvantaged students you are working with have been conditioned by society to think they are too poor, too stupid, and too big of a failure to be helped.

Stories such as that of a student taught by 2013 Fellow Joel Ryan Lee (http://bit.ly/YXlnhr) are, unfortunately, not uncommon in the high-need schools where the Fellows are sent to teach.

Encountering such crushing defeatism in a child or teenager for the first time can be an emotionally wrenching experience for the young, idealistic Fellows raised in vastly different circumstances.

That’s why TFM emphasises building a strong support network for its Fellows, comprising people from within the organisation, their alumni and supporters, as well as from the schools and the Education Ministry.

Leadership and learning

Dzameer acknowledged as they have grown and expanded, it has been as much of a learning curve for the organisation as it has been for their Fellows, especially when it comes to leadership.

“In principles and core values, we’re still the same but on an operational level, there’re so many things we’ve had to change – how we train and support our Fellows, how we interact with schools – the list goes on. We’re always trying to improve. If we expect our Fellows to improve on a continual basis, we have to improve faster to serve as a role model.”

Dzameer also expressed optimism about the direction of the Malaysian education system.

“One big surprise is the National Education Blueprint. When we first started, there was no talk of transformation under the old system. So we’re so lucky to be riding it and playing a small part in it as well.

“Talent is a key focus of the blueprint and that’s exactly what TFM does, trying to focus on talent. The best of us should be passing on civilisation to the next generation.

“I think TFM’s role is all about being a talent generator for the education system. We want to share, improve and collaborate because we feel that is what needs to happen. With the right talent, anything is possible.”

He hopes under the Blueprint, more autonomy will be given to principals, schools and districts as it opens up more possibilities and potential for greater impact on the problem of education inequality.

Art of possible

TFM has had its fair share of criticisms about its work, including doubts of whether Fellows can truly make a difference in two years and concerns that there are those who will only use the experience as a stepping stone to polish their resumes.

To this, Dzameer replied TFM needs both passion and leadership skills to make an impact on the classroom and transform the life trajectory of the kids.

“Given that we only ask for a two-year commitment and we know we can make an impact within that time on the life of the kid, we leave it to the alumni to decide what they do next.

“If society criticises us or alumni for only looking at short- term impact, the criticism is really on society itself because why aren’t they willing to invest in paying the teachers more and making it more rewarding for individuals to do good,” Dzameer said, adding that in some cases, individuals were rewarded by society for doing bad.

He gave the example of a Stanford MBA’s average annual salary as US$100,000 whereas the CEO of a charity body received US$82,000.

It would be cheaper for the Stanford MBA to donate US$100,000 to the charity body and receive a US$50,000 tax return, sit on the board and manage the CEO. The Stanford MBA would also get to enjoy recognition as a philantropist for the rest of his life.

“It’s up to society to realise it needs to make changes to make certain things happen,” Dzameer concluded.

Perhaps that’s why TFM adopted the tagline Do More Than Dream for its current recruitment drive for 2014 Fellows.

It’s clear TFM is walking its talk of making the changes it wants to see possible, instead of just waiting for someone else to do it.

The closing date for the 2014 Fellowship recruitment is April 22, 2013. For more information, visit TFM’s website (www.teachformalaysia.org), Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TeachForMalaysia) or Twitter (@TeachForMsia).