Consultant-Literacy Program

Designation: Consultant-Literacy Program

 

No. of openings: One (01).

Program: Literacy Program (SERI)                   

Location: Nirmal, Telangana

Contract Duration: August 2024 – December 2024

Start Date: ASAP

Working days – Monday to Saturday.

Working timing – 9.30 am to 6 pm/or as per school opening time.

About Room to Read

Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, we develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond. We are a non-government organization who works with local communities and governments to implement our programs. We are a learning organization that finds innovative solutions to challenges and acts quickly to achieve results. We hold ourselves accountable to both the children and the communities we serve and to our investors.

We currently work in fourteen countries of Asia and Africa. The countries with a desperate lack of resources to educate their children. Since our inception, Room to Read has impacted over 16.6 million children across 20,000 schools, published 1614 new children’s book titles, and reached over 50,000 girls through our Girls’ Education program. The global headquarters is located in San Francisco, having smaller fundraising offices in New York, Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, Sydney, and Tokyo. The Asia Regional Office located in New Delhi.

About Scaling-up Early Reading Intervention (SERI)

Since 2015, Room to Read India is implementing the Scaling-up Early Reading Intervention (SERI), supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It is a large-scale, comprehensive, early-grade reading program aimed at benefiting children in government primary schools in India. The project aims to demonstrate an effective model for improving reading outcomes among primary-grade children and an innovative approach for scaling NGO-led interventions through the government system. Since its start, the project has scaled across four states in India: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, reaching more than 900,000 children in over 2600 primary schools through demonstration and collaboration model. Now, the project has expanded to Telangana and Rajasthan.

The project has demonstrated substantial reading improvement among early-grade students at scale and is currently working towards institutionalizing the principles and practices within government systems. Continuous advocacy around FLN through successful initiatives like SERI and other organizations has resulted in the focus on FLN in the NEP 2020, and the subsequent launch of mission NIPUN Bharat 2021. There is now a general salience at the policy level around foundational literacy. While the ‘why’ i.e., the rationale of FLN has largely been established, and the ‘what’ i.e., the outcome has been articulated in NIPUN guidelines, the ‘how’ i.e., the process, still needs a more emphatic push from the National level.

Position Overview:

The Literacy Facilitator (LF Consultant) will be responsible for supporting and coaching teachers and complex headmasters in the literacy program schools to help them to adopt comprehensive literacy approach to increase the children’s literacy skills and habit of reading. The LF will report to the Program Associate. This position is based at Project location (Bellampalli Mandal, Nirmal District, Telangana)

Key tasks / Deliverables / Scope of Work:

• Provide technical assistance to the schools in the area of Telugu language development, literacy skills and reading.
• Undertake schools visits every day to the schools individually and jointly with the officials.
• Regularly observe Grade 1 and 2 Telugu instructional classes and demonstrate and coach teachers in delivering the instructional component of the Literacy Program.
• Conduct informal assessment of at least 5 children during every school visit and discuss with teachers and share report to supervisors.
• Regularly observe, demonstrate, and coach teachers in the implementation of the model library period, reading activities and library management practices.
• Support teachers in conducting ongoing student tracking assessments and plan corrective action.
• Regularly collect data related to program quality both manually and digitally through app.
• Participate in school/complex level teacher meeting, literacy events, parent meeting and other community activities.
• Compile and analyze ongoing reading skill assessments data conducted by school and plan school wise corrective action in discussion with supervisors.
• Any other tasks as assigned by the line managers.

Other agreements by the consultant:

• Work from the Bellampalli Mandal of Nirmal District of Room to Read and be willing to travel to the project locations as per project requirements.
• Participate in orientation meetings/trainings by Room to Read.
• Share the status of work daily to the program focal point by creating an activity tracker.
• Participate in debriefing meetings with Room to Read to discuss data collection experience, raise any areas of potential concern, and recommend any improvements to the process for future.
• Securely store the data with full confidentiality and submit the entire data with the program Department of Room to Read India Trust. 
• Take prior consent of the stakeholders before performing the assignment in every aspect.

Qualification & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in education / social sciences or equivalent
• Minimum 2- 3 years of relevant experience in development projects, preferably in education
• Teaching experience at primary level preferred
• Strong knowledge about education in general and language and reading practices and approaches in particular.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in Telugu
• Good interpersonal skills and a team player
• Critical thinking and analytical skills

Technical Evaluation Criteria:

• Professional Consultant / Academic background with demonstrated experience in foundational literacy and primary education along with the close working experience with the govt especially the education departments in the state. (Score - out of 5.)
• Demonstrated experience in documentation of reports, case stories and anecdotes.  (Assessed by the work samples submitted and review of CV) (Score - out of 5). 
• Understanding of scope of work. (Score - out of 5) (Assessed through the synopsis of proposal/assignments shared during interviews) 
• Ability to juggle multiple assignments, work with limited supervision and to meet the given deadlines and adhere to the RtR guidelines. (Score - out of 5) (Assessed through interview responses) 

Payment Terms:

The consultant will receive monthly pay-out based on the submission of agreed deliverables. The consultant will have to submit an approved invoice along with timesheet to claim payments by 20^th day of every month. All project-related travel expenses will be covered by the Consultant and will be reimbursed upon submission of supporting documents, under the SERI budget.

Room to Read is a child-safe organization; all personnel are expected to adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy and Child Protection Code of Conduct.

Application Procedure:

Interested candidate can share their updated resume at koyana.dutta@roomtoread.org mentioned subject line “Consultant-Literacy Program (Telangana, Nirmal)”.

Due to the high volume of applicant response, not all applicants may receive a response from Room to Read. Room to Read is an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds.

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