Opportunity International Job Vacancy 2017

The Education Specialist will be responsible for the management and oversight of non-financial education services functions as developed by Education Finance, within the target country specified, working alongside the current Education Specialist. This includes all lending-integrated services to schools, value-add educational services to individual EduFinance clients, and all non-microfinance programs designed and developed to support schools, students, teachers and parents. Primarily the role is focused on the development and supervision of all Education

Job Description

Job Title: Education Specialist

Quality related initiatives namely:

The setting up and efficient functioning of all in-country school leadership clusters to create a number of self-improving school systems across the country (each with 4-12 schools).

This involves working with the School Cluster Leaders in each cluster to ensure that a series of teacher cluster meetings are scheduled with an appropriate and agreed series of activities.

Leading the cluster teacher meetings to initiate and embed best practices.

Reporting on all meetings via the agreed timeline and reporting formats.

Encourage the Joint Practice Development model so that promising innovations become embedded in new teaching practices through mentoring & coaching approaches.

The operation of the school assessments via a tablet based survey, triangulated by a school self-assessment, teacher, parent and pupil surveys.

Support the development of the Communities of Practice site and moderate the discussion forums. (OPENeducator.org)

Support the Opportunity Teacher Forums.

Support the Knowledge Centre site and add resources as appropriate.

Assist in the Professional Development of both Proprietors/Headteachers (School Leadership Professional Development) and teaching staff via the partners appointed for these tasks.

The role is a combination of program development – education product and service design, knowledge management, and partnership development.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES 

Assessment Services
Work with the Director of Education Quality and existing Education Specialist in Ghana to implement a tablet based school assessment framework that targets areas for improvement at the school level, including safety and security, teacher efficacy and attitudes, materials provision, infrastructure, and parent needs, among other items. Initial designs will be for the pre-primary and primary levels, with the process to be iterated for additional levels.

School Assessments to be discussed with the Proprietor by the post holder following the tablet based assessments to help to shape the school development planning.

Cluster and Communities of Practice Development

Work locally to set up and develop effective clusters of schools with the School Cluster Leaders and their support staff.

Support the development of a sequence of cluster leadership and teacher meetings.

Work with each cluster to foster trust relationships and to assist in the sharing of innovations regionally and internationally.

Support the teacher Communities of Practice site and provide necessary moderation oversight.

Support the Proprietors (closed) Community site to encourage it becoming a well-used channel for providing cluster support to Proprietors and other leaders.

Proprietor Professional Development

Assist as necessary with the School Leadership Professional Development (SLPD) Programme, with a suitable focus on the quality of teaching and learning.

Teacher Joint Practice Development

Work independently and with external providers and the Education Specialist to implement a ‘Joint Practice Development’ approach (including mentoring & coaching) that targets the improvement of attitudes/motivation as well as new pedagogical skills within our network of schools.

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)

Liaise with MFIs as required to support the appropriate targeting of school improvement loans based upon the output of school assessments and the identified development priorities expressed by the schools.

Learning & Knowledge Management
Gather and document learnings and effective practices from the field on a regular basis for dissemination to the larger network of partners with the goal of continual improvement in service offerings.

Publish or contribute to publications, where applicable, to share outcomes, program design, and effectiveness of interventions with the broader MFI and educational communities.

Liaise with learning partners, as necessary, who are engaging with the work of EduFinance for the study and reporting of impact.

Other duties may be assigned

Clear commitment to the values of the organization – commitment, humility, respect, integrity, stewardship, and transformation.

Readily identifies mistakes and works to actively develop fixes and solutions.

Aggressive pursuit of excellence, including regularly going above and beyond the call of duty to achieve results that will contribute to the development goals of the organization.

Flexibility in pursuit of goals to account for a changing landscape without losing ground on the end goal.

Creative problem solving that leverages critical thinking ability into unique solutions to problems.

Honest and direct in communication and business practice.

Confronts unethical behavior and reports to appropriate channels until it is corrected.

Holds others accountable via relationships of influence to committed outputs and outcomes.

Able to productively work in high-context cultures.

QUALIFICATIONS

Degree in a field related to education, or a degree in a development-related field with significant experience in the education field.

Strong writing skills.

Experience working in education in Ghana ideally including in an educational leadership role in schools.

Complex critical thinking skills are a must.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

English language fluency required

Local language fluency required

Second local language knowledge a plus, but not required

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

Director of Education Quality

Other country/regional Education Specialists (Uganda, Rwanda, Colombia etc)

Operations & Finance Director x Financial Products Director

Education Finance implementing partners (MFI banks) & staff (supervisees)

Support member donor relationship staff

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

Approximately 60-80% required annually, mainly within the target country.

Able to travel with minimal notice and maximum flexibility.

Willing to travel independently and without escort or planning support.