Job Opportunity forAdvisory Consultant at Leadership for Equity in Mumbai

About Leadership For Equity (LFE)

Leadership For Skilled Education Foundation (branded as Leadership For Equity, LFE), is a non-profit (NGO) based out of Pune, Maharashtra.

We envision Public Education Systems That Refuse To Let Children Down

APPROACH: In our two-fold approach to change, we build the capacity of government system leaders and we influence system processes. In partnership with the local and state education bodies, we co-create programs that shift teaching-learning practices and improve student learning and well-being. This work coupled with our research and advisory support to influence policies, we hope to create an effective government education system.

Over the last 5 years, LFE has built the capacity of 2100+ system leaders, and 40,200+ teachers to impact 8 million students across Maharashtra. Additionally, LFE has recently expanded its operations and started working in another 3 states of India including Haryana, Tripura & Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra, LFE works with 5 districts (Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, Satara & Akola), 3 municipal bodies (Pune MC, Pimpri Chinchwad MC & Nagpur MC) & 5 state level education bodies (School Education Dept, SCERT, Samagra Shiksha, Tribal Development Dept, & TRTI). In Andhra Pradesh, LFE works closely with the Samagra Shiksha Office, SCERT & The World Bank on a multi-year strategic project to improve the quality of learning across 13 districts of the State. And lastly in Haryana & Tripura, LFE works with SCERTs of both states in setting up targeted program management units (PMUs) to strengthen delivery of large-scale academic programs.

BELIEF: We believe Public Education Systems are the gatekeepers of social EQUITY, especially when India’s 120 million children continue to go to government-run schools. A multi-layered, complex, and systemic problem of educational inequity, will require a solution rooted in the SYSTEMS CHANGE approach. We believe that a COLLECTIVE effort by forging partnerships with governments, like-minded philanthropists, corporates, donors, nonprofits and grass root organisations will help bring scalable and sustainable social change.

About Advisory vertical

The Advisory vertical of LFE has a dual function. The first one is to ensure the smooth functioning of the current verticals and the second is to establish LFE as one of the central and important knowledge partners in the education sector. The larger goal of the vertical is to engage with policymakers to multiply the impact of our existing programs and process by institutionalising some of the piloted interventions. It works with an understanding of three major objectives –

a) Ensuring smooth relationships with different government bodies and doing a health check-up of LFE’s relationships with government stakeholders

b) Propelling the impact of LFE’s projects through our government influence, and thus in-turn influencing the government to have policies which include learnings from the ground

c) Influencing the larger ecosystem (of NGOs and CSRs) through mutual learning forums, conferences, communication, and project learnings

About the FLN Mission

The Ministry of Education (previously Ministry of Human Resource and Development – MHRD) passed National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) this year. NEP 2020 in its principles, accords the highest priority to achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) in all students of Grade 3 by 2025.

The announcement to set up the National FLN Mission is one of the path-breaking initiatives that the new policy prescribes for solving India’s learning crisis. It goes a step further and sets a deadline of 2025 to achieve FLN in the country. However, this new direction would require a common understanding of well-defined indicators to measure foundational skills like word recognition and oral reading fluency. To ensure attainment of FLN among all students, the State needs to focus on this growth trajectory, and continue to build on the factors which have led to earlier successes. And therefore LFE as an advisory partner to the Maharashtra State Department of School Education is keen to support the strategy and implementation of the state-wide FLN mission. For this, LFE is proposing to set up a support team under the SCERT, School Education Department to support the state authorities to lead this mission.

Major responsibilities of the team working on FLN include, but are not restricted to –

● Co-creating and building a contextualised FLN Roadmap for Maharashtra aligned to National Guidelines

● Supporting in the Statewide launch of the FLN mission in Maharashtra

● Supporting Senior leadership for Social Media Campaign and consistent communication for creating awareness about the program among stakeholders as well as during the execution of the program

● Research & identify potential partners for implementing a structured pedagogy program

● Supporting in designing the State’s roadmap to roll out Blended FLN Training program for reaching 1.5 lakh Govt school teachers

● Supporting SCERT to adapt & contextualize the learning-outcomes & Sub/micro-outcomes framework for the State FLN mission and create a blueprint of FLN diagnostic/ base-line

● Support government officials as and when needed in various responsibilities like data gathering, data analysis, documentation and so on.

Job Description and Responsibilities

Advisory consultants will work with the Program Manager, government stakeholders and external partner(s) to ensure goals set by the Education Department and LFE team for the FLN mission are achieved. Additionally, they will lead the end to end planning and implementation of conclaves, conferences, panel discussions to bring forward a focus on best practices from the work being done by government departments and advocate for a dialogue around important topics, issues in the larger education domain.

The key responsibilities are as follows:

Project management and implementation support (30%)

• Supporting senior officers within the Project Management Unit in all aspects of programme delivery including arranging and attending meetings, taking minutes and co-ordinating actions arising from the meetings, and dealing with routine questions and issues.
• Providing research, coordination and liaison support to implement strategic plan under the education department.
• Drafting impact report for the initiatives undertaken by the department
• Conduct district and school visits as and when required to garner sufficient understanding and context of government schools, government departments and support program team in execution of project priorities
• Conduct regular supervisory field office visits to assess the status of project activities or to participate in technical or evaluation work.

Stakeholder management (40%)

• Work with senior officials from the education department members to build long-lasting relationships that aid project design, execution and M&E plan.
• Promote collaboration amongst officers across the state (education dept) to support and help to achieve the stated goal under the FLN mission for Maharashtra state
• Plan and execute program review and update meetings (whenever necessary) with stakeholders and provide progress towards the goals of the project in a consumable format to all stakeholders.
• Able to influence all respective stakeholders to drive and lead mission as per the decided plan

Technical Responsibilities (30%)

• Advise on the design, development, and quality control of academic activities and deliverables
• Track, analyse, and share the latest international evidence and development trends and priorities with regard to reading, particularly in developing country contexts
• Participate in the design, implementation, and analysis of key research agendas for FLN aligned projects
• Participate in and contribute to education forums, such as technical working groups, learning events, and blogs
• Provide support in developing the capacity of government staff and serve as technical expert in education

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

● Masters in Education / Social Sector is preferred.

● 4 to 6 years of experience in education primarily executing projects, working with govt officials (at least 2 years of which should include directly working with Senior government stakeholders/leadership would be preferable)

● Experience working in Maharashtra would be preferable

● Prior experience in the Advocacy and Advisory sector would be highly preferred

● Experience in policy implementation would be highly preferred

● Excellent written and oral communication skills and functional knowledge (oral and reading) of Marathi would be highly preferred

● Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens

● A basic understanding of social equity, development discourse and education policy in India

● Being able to take initiative and work in an autonomous, semi-structured environment

● High openness to learning

● Ability to influence people, taking initiatives, build and sustain relationships with multiple stakeholders & partners across public and private spaces

● Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel, Google Suite, and varied data sets

Location and Compensation

Location: Mumbai/Pune. Will involve travel across state as and when required

Compensation: The consultant renumeration will be at par with industry standards and will be decided depending on the previous work experience, suitability for the role. Apart from monthly salary, external travel and accommodation costs will be reimbursed as per LFE’s HR Policy.

Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.