Education Manager

Background/IRC Summary:

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. The IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war and disaster. Currently operating in over 40 countries, the IRC restores dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure across the world-leading the way from harm to home.
• IRC has been working in Pakistan for nearly 40 years, managing and delivering large, complex programs in most difficult and hard to reach geographies of the country, to provide needs-based support including health, education, protection, environmental health, climate change, governance, and livelihood for displaced, poor, and disaster-affected communities. With continuous support from the federal and provincial governments, and generous donors including FCDO, ECHO, GFFO, UNHCR, SIDA, Irish Aid and Australian Aid Agencies the IRC is currently implementing projects to serve refugees, internally displaced people, marginalized and flood affected communities across the country. Working in partnership local civil society and in close coordination with communities, district and provincial governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh provinces ensures IRC’s success in serving people in need.

Job Overview/Summary:

• Under the supervision of the Team Lead, the Education Manager will provide support in implementation and quality assurance of education/ in emergencies related interventions acrosstargeted districts in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and KP provinces.  He/she will support for capacity building of partner organization and field project teams, in the delivery of literacy, numeracy and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Learning Spaces and Accelerated Learning Program Centers. The role will also involve monitoring education centers, facilitating and conducting teachers/facilitators training, and ensure smooth transitioning of children to formal education, implementing measures for keeping a record of students’ learning outcomes, inclusion of vulnerable children and those with disabilities. The position holder will support the Program team and relevant departments in conducting field visits and putting together concept notes and proposals, knowledge sharing, reporting and other activities assigned by the supervisor.

Major Responsibilities:

Project planning and implementation:

• Work in close coordination with country office and project teams and partner organizations (NGOs) to achieve overall grant objectives, deliverables, and compliance within donor guidelines.
• Provide technical support to the partners in the development/updating of the work plan for education component of the project with clear objectives and achievement benchmarks, longterm and short-term priorities, in line with programmatic vision and strategies.
• In collaboration with the team, identify existing project implementation gaps in education, advise corrective actions to put project on track and liaise with partners and stakeholders.
• Coordinate and plan in advance with all program team members to ensure that the needed support is anticipated and available at program sites, and that program activities are implemented with high quality, in line with IRC standards.
• Any other assigned tasks by the line manager.

Quality Oversight:

• Work closely with training manager for improved training material, lesson plans and support delivery of training plans.
• Conduct field visits to project sites as and when required and provide hands on support for the roll out of education activities in consultation with the supervisor and Sr Project Manager.
• Monitor project performance in assigned topic and/or geographic area and provide technical assistance as needed.
• Work closely with the Project manager to provide clear implementation and technical support, supervision, training, and mentoring to the education partners, including training needed to build specialized skills.
• Ensure that partners’ staff and services adhere to improved, professional standards and principles.
• Ensure integration of Education with other sectors (health, WPE, WASH, Nutrition, Cash, climate change and power etc) especially in emergencies adhering to integrated project designs.

Coordination and Representation:

• Actively maintain effective working relationships with partners and project teams.
• Maintain a productive working relationship with key education actors working in the nonformal education sector for knowledge sharing on standard methodologies and implementation across project areas.
• Ensure key field concerns are brought to the IRC team and relevant partners with proposed solutions.
• Represent the project team and IRC Pakistan in sectoral and other coordination meetings.

Reporting:

• Good understanding of project budgets and spending plans.
• Provide support to the partners in delivering quality outcomes related to children’s learning, teaching, and learning environment and process, obtain and maintain key data from partners and reporting.
• Support partners in producing high-quality progress reports and document rationale for under achievement of project targets.
• Provide support on updating 5Ws (refugee response) using the activity info.

Position Reports to: Team Lead

Position directly supervises: None

Technical support: Education Officer, Protection Officer and Partner teams

Job Requirements:

Education:

• Master’s degree in education or social sciences.

Work Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of working experience in I/NGO (at least 3-4 years in INGO)/NGO in a similar position and providing technical support to education focused projects with strong knowledge of ECE, primary, elementary, and secondary school education especially in emergency situations.
• Good understanding on INEE standards and best practices in teaching and learning
• Experience of working with government and private schools and government teachers including teacher trainings and continuous professional development
• Clear concept of student assessment development and knowledge of government’s education service delivery system

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Sound knowledge of the software (Microsoft Windows, MS Excel, MS Word, MS PowerPoint),
• Excellent report writing and editing skills.
• Experience in training and workshop facilitation and manual development.
• Proven track record of supporting teams to meet project timelines.
• Ability to analyze data for project course correction.
• Knowledge of teacher appraisal and assessment for learning
• Excellent communication and analytical skills, including the ability to develop and deliver presentations.
• Strong leadership, negotiation and consensus building skills
• Ability to work with diverse teams, multitasking and manage competing priorities within tight deadlines.

Language Skills:

• Strong English language skills both written and oral; knowledge of local languages preferred.

Desirable criteria:

• Past work experience on Education in Emergencies, Livelihoods, and Skills Development project directly as well as through implementing or consortium partners.
• Sound knowledge of Pakistan’s education, social and political context

The IRC Core Values and Commitments.

• The IRC and its workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality, and Accountability. According to these values, the IRC operates and implements policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity Anti-Retaliation, and Combating Trafficking in Persons.
• IRC is committed to ensuring that IRC staff is suitable to work with children and have the knowledge s/he needs to uphold and abide by the IRC’s Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Level of interaction with children: Frequent direct contact with children
• IRC recognizes that gender equality is fundamental to the achievement of our organizational mission. As such, IRC is committed to the promotion of gender equality in all aspects of our operations and programs. Our organizational policies, procedures, and actions demonstrate this dedication.