Job Opportunity for Project Manager at The Convergence Foundation in Guwahati

Position: Project Manager, Governance

Location: Guwahati

About Central Square Foundation:

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving the learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities. 

To know more about CSF, please visit-https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/

About the team:

Private schools form an essential part of the Indian education landscape – approximately a third of all children study in private unaided schools, and over 16 states have more than 50% of students enrolled in private schools. The majority of these are ‘budget or affordable private schools, charging anywhere between ₹150 – 1,500 per child, per month. However, student achievement in these schools leaves much to be desired as the learning outcomes of students in private schools are only marginally better than those enrolled in government schools. 

Central Square Foundation is working to address key challenges in this heterogeneous sector through system-based levers and piloting evidence-based solutions. Our work includes promoting the use of learning data to shape parent demand, changing the narrative around private schools to a constructive one, and building knowledge and awareness around pragmatic regulations focusing on learning outcomes improvement for private schools. Private schools are a severely under-researched sector, so we are also engaging with academia and experts to undertake research projects that will help us better understand how the private school system can be improved. 

About the role:

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has identified the current regulatory architecture governing the private school education sector as one of the challenges and recommends a greater focus on learning outcomes. The policy also identifies ‘conflict of interest’, as the same government body is usually the regulator as well as a service provider. To address this challenge, the policy recommends the roles of regulation, policymaking and service delivery to be separated with specialised bodies. One of the major recommendations under the broader idea of separation of functions is the constitution of an independent regulatory body, ‘State School Standards Authority’. Central Square Foundation is working with the Government of Assam to provide technical, knowledge, and secretariat support in the implementation of all the recommendations of the National Education Policy and specifically support the change in the regulatory architecture. 

This role directly reports to the Senior Consultant, Private Governance Team. The broad responsibilities could be in two parts: 

1) Drive the work with regard to setting up of the SSSA by adopting the draft model law 

2) providing secretarial support to the Rajya Shiksha Ayog (RSA) 

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to: 

State School Standard Authority: 

• Prepare strategic roadmaps and implementation plans with goals and milestones for the changes in the regulatory architecture of school education 
• Take ownership of SSSA work streams and manage them end-to-end 
• Review of state laws related with the governance of school education 
• Set up project management processes and guidelines and ensure that all activities of NEP implementation are driving towards the defined goals
• Create internal alignment between different interventions and partners 
• Coordinate with external stakeholders (NGOs, experts, other States)
• Facilitate conversations, setup and manage partnerships to leverage the best support for the State government

Rajya Shiksha Ayog:

Analysis:

• Comparison of Assam with other States/MoE
• Comparison between 2 different streams in Education
• Best practices across the World/India
• MoE NEP tracker analysis

Documentation

• Assam all NEP 2020 related documentation(Both Physical and Digital)
• Minutes of meeting 
• NEP related ppt/excel/word doc
• MoE tracker regular update 

Support Work

• Cabinet meeting preparations
• Organizing meeting/Events 
• Data collection and follow up for Higher Education

Required Qualifications, Skills and Abilities:

• 2 to 4 years of work experience with managerial responsibilities, demonstrating superb project delivery and team leadership 
• Experience in managing multi-stakeholders project
• Excellent research skills and the ability to analyze complex qualitative and quantitative data, craft possible solutions, and recommend actions
• Ability to build and maintain positive and collaborative relationships both within and outside the organization, including with colleagues, schools, regulators, foundations, researchers, grantees, and education product/service providers
• Ability to lead meetings, deliver presentations, and represent CSF to external audiences
• Ability to work independently and proactively, without support staff and with little supervision
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, strong presentation skills
• Strong execution, planning and organizational skills, and an ability to be able to set priorities, plan timelines and meet deadlines
• Optional: Masters degree or equivalent in relevant fields: including education, management, economics, social sciences and public policy preferred

Desired Qualities

• Entrepreneurial spirit and ‘can-do’ attitude
• Operating style suited to working in a small-organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are highly valued
• Excellent leadership skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects at a time

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate’s experience levels.