IT major Wipro today said it has partnered with the University of Massachusetts, Boston to jointly launch a 12-month fellowship programme in the US to train 120 school teachers over three years.

“The one-year Wipro Fellowship programme is aimed at developing competencies of teachers and making them catalysts of change in their schools, districts and among educators,” Wipro Chief Sustainability Officer Anurag Behar told PTI.

He, however, did not comment on the investment being made by Wipro.

The programme will be entirely funded by Wipro and will see 40 experienced science teachers in the Boston and New York areas (from those engaged with kindergarten to grade 12) being selected every year after a rigorous selection process.

The nomination process for the fellowship will commence in January, 2013 and the selection is due to be completed by March, 2013. The course is scheduled to begin on September 1, 2013.

“Selected teachers will undergo 250 hours of intense capability development training by a team led by Arthur Eisenkraft, Professor of Science Education and Director of the Centre of Science and Math in Context (COSMIC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston,” he said.

Each teacher will continue to teach in their respective schools, and during the duration of the fellowship, they will also engage with local communities and other interested teachers to catalyse broader improvement.

“The programme deeply integrates three dimensions to help enable this: leadership, reflective practice and adult learning,” he said.

The University will partner with a university in the New York City area and multiple school districts in the Boston and New York to administer this programme.

Wipro is already working with schools in India for over a decade. Its “Applying Thought in Schools” initiative is aimed to help being in societal change and development by improving the quality of education.

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