JOB DETAILS:
World Education, a division of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI/WE) is dedicated to improving people’s lives around the world through greater heath, education and socioeconomic equity for individuals and communities, and to providing an environment where people of passion can pursue this cause.

JSI/WE is seeking a Basic Education Technical Lead for the anticipated USAID’s Targeting the Learning Crisis Activity in Uganda, which aims to create sustained, measurable improvements in development outcomes in Basic Education through Targeted Instruction (TI) for foundational skills, a learner-centric pedagogy that reorganizes math and reading instruction based on children’s actual learning levels, rather than on the prescribed grade-level syllabus. The Activity seeks to implement cost-effective, sustainable, and impactful programming, centered around Targeted Instruction pedagogy for P3-P5, Targeted Instruction and other evidence-based approaches for P1-P2, and evidence-based early childhood education for pre-primary years, in order to significantly improve math and reading learning outcomes for Ugandan primary students.

Job Summary
The Basic Education Technical Lead’s primary responsibility is to provide oversight to all P1-P5 program interventions and collaborate with all relevant education departments and stakeholders nationally and locally. S/he will be responsible for coordinating all in-school and out-of-school primary education related interventions and providing technical oversight of the project’s basic education technical staff, while collaborating with the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Technical Lead to ensure smooth and effective transition from pre-primary into primary school. The Basic Education Technical Lead will assist the Chief of Party (COP) in overall project leadership and liaising with the Government of Uganda, USAID, and other key stakeholders. The Basic Education Technical Lead is a member of the Senior Management Team of the project and reports to the COP. Responsibilities include the overall coordination of program implementation activities in order to implement the Targeting the Learning Crisis (TLC) approaches to improve basic education outcomes at the pre-primary and primary level in Uganda.

RESPONSIBILITIES
• Provide oversight to all basic education program interventions to ensure quality of TLC’s basic education interventions across the program, including supporting project staff (from JSI/WE and partners) to understand Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) and TI approaches;
• Integrate evidence-based strategies in technical, operational, and/or Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) activities from JSI/WE and consortium partners;
• Review project work plans, designing all basic education activities that target learners and teachers, including age- and developmentally-appropriate activities, and activities that are responsive to and target marginalized youth;
• Coordinate effective partnerships with the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) and other partners at the local, district, and national level;
• Strengthen the capacity of staff, partners, and stakeholders to integrate gender equity, UDL, SEL and other social inclusion considerations into intervention design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation;
• Support the MEL team in reviewing indicators, setting targets, planning for data collection, analysis, and reporting, and setting priorities around learning outcomes;
• Support the development of quarterly and annual project reports and internal documentation as required;
• Disseminate lessons learned among program staff and stakeholders.

QUALIFICATIONS
• A minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education, gender studies, youth development, international studies, sociology, or social sciences is required. Master’s degree or equivalent preferred;
• At least 8-10 years of consecutive proven work experience in managing and providing technical leadership in large, complex projects in education, youth development, gender and social inclusion and/or integrated cross-sectoral programs: USAID experience preferred;
• Familiarity with Teaching at the Right Level and (other) evidence based assessment and remediation strategies in- and outside of schools.
• Demonstrated experience and familiarity with the Ugandan primary education curriculum, continuous and summative assessment design, and program adaptation to achieve results;
• Solid contextual knowledge of barriers to primary education in Uganda;
• Demonstrated experience conducting gender and/or youth analysis, including qualitative data collection;
• Proven interpersonal skills with the ability to build personal relationships with staff, donor partners, and government stakeholders at all levels in a culturally sensitive manner;
• Program/project management experience working with rural, underserved populations;
• Demonstrated experience developing community engagement strategies and approaches, and building the capacity of staff and partners to operationalize these;
• Effective oral and written communication skills to make formal and informal presentations and compose professional and analytical reports and program documents in English.
• Ugandan nationals strongly encouraged to apply.