Project Manager – DIB on Assessment Reforms

About Peepul

Peepul is an education-focused non-profit. We dream and work towards creating an education system in India that enables and supports every child to realise their potential. We work closely with national, state, and local governments to transform government schools and government systems. Currently, we work with governments in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, to meaningfully have impact across 300,000 teachers and 9 million children, across 100,000+ schools. We have received many accolades for our work, including the Commonwealth Education Awards for Innovation (from ~2500 applications across 32 countries). One of the schools we deeply support in Delhi was shortlisted as the Top 10 Schools in the world for Innovation. Our work has also been featured in reports and publications by the Education Development Trust, the UN and the national Ministry of Education, India. The impact of our work has also been verified by third-party assessments. Within a period of three years, we have grown tremendously to now reach a team size of 150 employees, across the geographies in which we operate. We are fortunate to have many supporters fuel our growth journey such as the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Mulago Foundation, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, SBI Foundation, The/Nudge Foundation, Dovetail Impact Foundation, Maitri Trust, Amazon India, Bank of America India (full list on website). Impact at scale is the core of our work and this approach has been profiled in the media by Business World, The Economic Times, Nexus of Good Foundation, FICCI, Niti Aayog, among others. We are a restless, resilient, and reflective organisation. We aim high, innovate, work smart, work as a team, and use rigorous research to inform our work. With regard to our talent, we work towards keeping our people first and offer a compelling compensation and benefits package, to ensure our high-quality talent is appreciated and remunerated competitively. Website: http://peepulindia.org/

 

Programme Context

Peepul is participating in an FLN focused DIB (Development Impact Bond). This will be a 5-year project with The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) startingwith a learning year (July 2022 onward) followed by 4 years of outcome-based funding (Academic year 2023-24 onward). SDMC currently runs 581 primary schools – this includes ~6000 teachers and ~250,000students. Peepul has been working with SDMC since 2015. This strong relationship has run through 3 programmes – Exemplar Schools, Teacher Training (Sitara) and System Strengthening (Parivartan). To further deepen our engagement and impact in SDMC we believe an investment in effective assessments can be the catalyst to drive improvement in student learning outcomes. Assessments are at the core of the student learning, as they diagnose learning gaps and help teachers frame need-based learning plans. Factoring this, as well as the learning loss from two years of school closures due to COVID, we are implementing a 5-year project under a larger FLN focused DIB (Development Impact Bond) that aims to roll out a series of academic, governance and technology reforms aimed at strengthening assessments across SDMC. Over these five years, Peepul will build the systemic understanding and competency in implementing highquality student-learning focused assessments. This will be done by reviewing existing practices, co-creating Standard Operating Protocols for conducting high-quality assessments, conducting trainings for officials, etc.

 

Role Description

The role of the Project Manager is critical to the success of the continued partnership with the SDMC towards achieving quality education for all, and to Peepul’s strategic objective of supporting quality improvement in the public-school system in India. This is therefore an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to play a key role in a flagship reform initiative with enormous potential impact. To enable programme’s success, we require to rapidly roll-out and scale our support to reach all teachers and officials in the SDMC. The Project Manager will be an excellent team player, who will independently lead and drive design and delivery of interventions towards support and accountability of teachers and academic officials of the SDMC. The ideal candidate should be able to bring together education expertise, creative problem-solving and stakeholder management, towards the creation, implementation, and impact tracking of high-quality initiatives towards improvement of the quality of education in the SDMC.

Responsibilities would include:

To lead project design, piloting, and implementation of interventions towards assessment reforms

o Taking the lead on one or more interventions/workstreams within the DIB – On Assessment Reforms programme

o Designing, piloting and developing the interventions (e.g. Professional Learning Communities, supporting a cadre of teachers in designing and delivering assessments, remedial learning etc.) in collaboration with government counterparts

o Applying content knowledge and classroom experience in developing these interventions that will lead to shifts in teacher mindset, knowledge and practice

o Leading the pilot of interventions, documenting learnings and evolving the design to have greater impact at scale

o Working closely with government stakeholders to build knowledge as well as build capacity towards improved implementation

o Defining success metrics and growth aspiration for the project and communicating effectively with all stakeholders to translate this into a successful multi-year engagement

 

To manage best-in-class project implementation to ensure impact

o Plan and sequence the implementation of programme interventions in close coordination with the Project Coordination team and organizational subject experts

o Create effective work planning systems to ensure work remains on track and effectively prioritized, including regular work reviews to keep the project on track

o Potentially manage 1-2 associates and provide guidance/review on their deliverables

o Work with in-house M&E team and external experts to develop appropriate project evaluation tools

 

To be a strong team collaborator, manage cross-functional relationships and engage effectively with key government stakeholders

o Foster a positive and collaborative culture of trust and high expectations in the team

o Develop and maintain strong operational relationships with government partners, putting in place mechanisms to support collaboration and crossorganizational working

o Design and build effective, fully aligned partnerships with other education non-profits and agencies, to leverage external expertise and resources where appropriate

o Build capacity within government teams to ensure ongoing, sustainable organizational self-improvement after the formal end of the project

 

Qualifications

• 4-6 years of work experience of working in government systems or in the impact space, preferably development sector • Advanced degree and professional qualification in public administration and/or management, public policy, economics or relevant discipline is preferred. A degree in Education is preferred • Strong track record of success in managing projects with multi-functional teams in complex, fluid situations. Demonstration through previous experience of this in either the corporate sector or development sector • Extensive experience of collaborating and partnering with senior internal and external stakeholders, including senior political figures, and communicating to a variety of audiences • Extremely strong analytical skills and good judgement, able to lead and manage project design and implementation • An appreciation for education overall, and specific areas of expertise in education (e.g., primary school curriculum, large scale assessments, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, etc.) would be preferable • The intellectual creativity and innovation to develop pragmatic solutions to operational challenges as they arise, while maintaining focus on strategic goals. • Strong research instinct, ability to gather information, examine perspectives and create synthesized solutions/recommendations • Exceptional stakeholder management skills with the ability to build strong relationships with a wide range of individuals in public, private and non-profit sectors • Effective leadership skills and interpersonal skills, to be able to foster a strong Peepul delivery team and to work with public sector colleagues and associates with a consultative and collegiate decision-making style • Bias to action, with an ability to step back and see the larger picture • An ability to work successfully under pressure with the capacity to manage competing priorities and deliver to deadlines. • Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communications skills, to ensure the goals and operations of the project are well understood across all stakeholder groups • A passion for education and a genuine commitment to Peepul’s mission and values. • Fluency in English and Hindi

All open JDs are available on www.peepulindia.org/careers. To apply for this position, please submit your application with a CV and cover letter as an email to recruitment@peepulindia.org, with the subject “Application for <>”. Please ensure that your CV includes relevant professional and personal experience and details on academic qualifications. Additionally, we encourage you to use your cover letter to highlight why you want to work for Peepul and are interested in this particular role. Please contact us at recruitment@peepulindia.org for further queries (if any).

Tags Assessment Reforms