Job Opportunity for Project Manager/Associate – Assessments at Peepul in Bhopal

About Peepul

Peepul is an education-focused non-profit. We dream and work towards creating an education system in India that enables and supports every child to realise their potential.

We work closely with national, state, and local governments to transform government schools and government systems. Currently, we work with governments in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, to meaningfully have impact across 300,000 teachers and 9 million children, across 100,000+ schools.

We have received many accolades for our work, including the Commonwealth Education Awards for Innovation (from ~2500 applications across 32 countries). One of the schools we deeply support in Delhi was shortlisted as the Top 10 Schools in the world for Innovation. Our work has also been featured in reports and publications by the Education Development Trust, the UN and the national Ministry of Education, India. The impact of our work has also been verified by third-party assessments.

Within a period of three years, we have grown tremendously to now reach a team size of 150 employees, across the geographies in which we operate. We are fortunate to have many supporters fuel our growth journey such as the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Mulago Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, SBI Foundation, The/Nudge Foundation, Dovetail Impact Foundation, Maitri Trust, Amazon India, Bank of America India (full list on website). Impact at scale is the core of our work and this approach has been profiled in the media by Business World, The Economic Times, Nexus of Good Foundation, FICCI, Niti Aayog, among others.

We are a restless, resilient, and reflective organisation. We aim high, innovate, work smart, work as a team, and use rigorous research to inform our work.

With regard to our talent, we work towards keeping our people first and offer a compelling compensation and benefits package, to ensure our high-quality talent is appreciated and remunerated competitively.

Programme Context

The Department of Education, Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP), is on an ambitious reform agenda to improve the quality of the public school system and learning outcomes. This reform agenda focuses on accountability and governance, structural and administrative reforms, capacity building and learning from innovations and international best practices in pedagogy and delivery.

Peepul has partnered with the Govt. of MP to strengthen learning outcomes for almost a decade. Through this partnership, we have also developed a deep understanding of the Madhya Pradesh context, education landscape, and administrative support structures at the ground level.

Peepul is a critical partner to the Government of Madhya Pradesh in their flagship “CM RISE Schools” programme. We are partnering to build an Academic Support and Monitoring Unit (ASMU), to create exemplar public schools that provide high-quality holistic education to children across Madhya Pradesh.

The CM RISE Schools are envisioned to showcase quality teaching-learning practices & innovative school management processes and act as visual exemplars in the school system for all others to learn and derive motivation from.

Role Description

The role of the Project Manager/ Associate – Assessments is critical to the success of the continued partnership with the Government of Madhya Pradesh towards achieving quality education for all and to Peepul’s strategic objective of supporting quality improvement in the public school system in India.

As part of our support to the CM Rise Schools and other state priorities, the Project ManagerAssessments will be primarily responsible for conceptualisation, design, pilot and roll out of high quality-competency based assessments across different grades.

This person will be an excellent team player working closely with project coordinators, program managers and other members of the team to design high quality test items, competency maps, rubrics and other tools and frameworks leading to delivery of high-quality assessments for the students of CM Rise Schools.

This is therefore an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to play a key role in an exemplar school project with enormous potential impact. The Project Manager – Assessments must be someone with strong vision, deep educational, operational, and technological expertise, and dexterity in managing relationships with the multiple institutions involved (e.g. the RSK, DIETs, SCERT etc). Ideally, he/she would be someone who can bring to bear understanding and expertise in large scale assessments, data analysis, technology, and operations strategy.

The Project Manager will be someone who exemplifies flexibility, tenacity and enthusiasm to create assessment designs that enable teachers to derive useful insights on student learning outcomes and move towards data backed instructions in the classrooms.

Responsibilities would include:

• To own all aspects related to student assessments in the project o Design the scope and sequence of student assessments across the CM Rise Schools

o Create relevant frameworks such as competency maps and curriculum maps

o Own the creation, testing, pilot and roll out of test items

o Work with multiple knowledge partners across the state towards a productive collaboration

o Collaborate with the central Peepul codification team and other programmes to leverage existing resources, and relay back learnings from the programmes in Madhya Pradesh, to build strong repository of knowledge

• To support best-in-class project implementation to ensure impact

o Support the planning and sequencing of various programme interventions, in close coordination with the Program manager.

o Create effective work planning systems to ensure work remains on track and effectively prioritized, including regular work reviews to keep the project on track.

o Potentially manage 1-2 associates and provide guidance/review on their deliverables.

o Work with the in-house M&E team and external experts to develop appropriate project evaluation tools

• To be a strong team collaborator, manage cross-functional relationships and engage effectively with key government stakeholders

o Foster a positive and collaborative culture of trust and high expectations in the team.

o Develop and maintain strong operational relationships with government partners, putting in place mechanisms to support collaboration and cross-organizational working.

o Design and build effective, fully aligned partnerships with other education non-profits and agencies, to leverage external expertise and resources where appropriate.

o Work closely with the team to build capacity within the state government to set up excellent as well as sustainable processes for continuous professional development of teachers, school principals and officers in the education department.

o Present data backed research insights to the state government to support strengthening of the assessment structures of CM Rise Schools

Qualifications

• Deep passion and strong interest in the education sector

• 4-7 years of relevant work experience

• Preference for work experience in the public education system, or previous work with the government

• Master’s degree and professional qualification in relevant discipline is preferred

• Preference will be given to candidates with work experience in roles dealing with large scale assessments in education, data analysis, technology, and operations strategy

Please note that the title of Project Manager or Project Associates will depend on qualifications and past work experience.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation will be commensurate with the qualifications and experiences. Peepul is a people-first organization, and offers a range of employee benefits, including a generous health insurance (for self and parents), a generous leave policy, relocation benefits, PF, Gratuity, communication and travel reimbursements, etc.

Application Process

All open JDs are available on www.peepulindia.org/careers. To apply for this position, please submit your application with a CV and cover letter as an email to recruitment@peepulindia.org, with the subject “Application for <>”.

Please ensure that your CV includes relevant professional and personal experience and details on academic qualifications. Additionally, we encourage you to use your cover letter to highlight why you want to work for Peepul and are interested in this particular role. Please contact us at recruitment@peepulindia.org for further queries (if any).