Every EdTech company out there is focused on what the student wants, a few are additionally focused on equipping schools, but when we read about Teacherr and saw that their energies are dedicated towards supporting one the strongest pillars in the education system — teachers — we just had to find out more. So, their backstory is that upon a chance visit to a school in Hyderabad and listening to the principal talk about the difficulties they face in hiring quality teachers, Varun Beluguppa and Harsha Teja were perplexed. Why aren't job portals helping? What about all those classified ads in the newspaper? They wondered. When they visited another 150-odd schools, they realised that here is a problem that needs to be addressed. And where there is a problem, a true entrepreneur applies himself. Thus the birth of Teacherr, which started out as a job portal for teachers. Soon, they realised that the problem was much bigger. "The professional development of teachers is restricted within the four walls of the classroom and they hardly get to create a brand for themselves," says Varun. And when this realisation dawned, Teacherr grew from a start-up into a community.
This start-up — co-founded by Varun, Harsha and Sonu Sharma and launched in June 2019 — started conducting offline events and fairs centred around certification and upskilling courses for teachers alone. The portal itself evolved to include facilities that allow teachers to exchange notes and best-case practices, which facilitate peer-to-peer learning. It has a blog that teachers can use as resources and then, there is the job opportunities listing, still alive and kickin'. The pull of all these features they are offering is such that 7,300 teachers, lecturers, professors and hobby educators are a part of their community and about 120 educational institutions have hired from their portal so far.
Since April 11, Teacherr has been conducting extensive online events under the banner of No Lockdown For Learning. The latest, which caught our eye, was the three-day training on using Minecraft for Education in association with the School of Education, Osmania University. "Several other sessions are being organised by us and are conducted by industry experts," explains the 24-year-old who adds that we must consider the lockdown as a blessing, especially for teachers who now have the time to focus on themselves. An average of 200 teachers, not just from Hyderabad but also from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and so on, are usually a part of these sessions.
The future looks equally bright for Teacherr because not only do they want to continue the courses, they also want to initiate open and closed groups on their portal to facilitate more meaningful interactions between teachers and even host a hackathon for teachers — the top prize being a corporate job for the winner. "All I want to say is shout out to all those amazing teachers out there who are adapting to new ways and are willing to make the effort to do their job better," says Varun.
Some of the sessions they have organised:
- Ideas to Remove Fear of Mathematics by Divya Kapoor, recipient of CBSE National Award recently
- Emerging Opportunities for Teachers by Paramjeet Kaur Dhillon who is a Master Trainer on 21st Century Core Skills by the British Council
- Coping Strategies for Teachers by Tapti Chatterjee, Executive Director of Modern Public School
- Effective Use of Online Teaching by Sonia Wadhwa who is a Microsoft Certified Educator Expert, Adobe Creative Educator and more
For more on them, check out teacherr.in
