Senior education Officer

Background/IRC Summary: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees made to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Position Summary:

IRC is seeking a Senior Education Officer for a five-year project, “PlayMatters”, funded by the LEGO Foundation. This position will be a part of the larger PlayMatters initiative to increase play-based learning opportunities for nearly 1 million pre-primary and primary school aged refugee and host community children impacted by the humanitarian crises in East Africa and living in Ethiopia and Uganda. This project aims to build children’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical and creative skills through play in their homes, schools, and communities and will be implemented in partnership with War Child, Plan International, Ubongo, Behavioural Insights Team and Innovations for Poverty Action.

The Senior Education officer will be responsible for ensuring that PlayMatters consortium and IRC staff identify, engage, and influence key education partners in Ethiopia responsible for and engaged in promoting learning outcomes for refugee and local children ages 3 to 12. This includes collaboration with government, UN and other humanitarian coordination decision makers, education implementing partners, and large scale development initiatives to improve learning through play.

The Senior Education officer will report to the Education/CYPD manager at the field office level with additional oversight from the country level PlayMatters project team; work closely with the camp based education officers/assistants, ARRA, WEO specialists and other implementing partners to integrate LtP into existing preschool, primary school and child friendly spaces activities targeting children in refugee and host community. S/he will also assist in the development/adaptation and testing of developed content and approaches for teachers, parents and children. S/he will also assist to map existing teaching and learning materials for preschool and primary school children in Ethiopia and support to establish a framework for LtP competencies and quality LtP standards. In doing so, the Senior Education Officer will ensure the type of engagement in design and implementation necessary to achieve joint priorities and objectives of providing play based learning opportunities for all children.

Job Responsibilities:

• Assist in mapping of existing teaching and learning materials being used in the refugee and host community schools against a framework to identify areas of integration, adaptation, and development of content;
• Based on behavioral insights mapping and human centered design research, assist to identify prototypes of content and delivery of content for teachers, parents and children
• Engage with field level coordination leads, implementing partners, teachers, parents and children through structured co-creation processes
• Support the development/adaptation of training content for teachers in refugee and refugee host communities through participatory and consultative process involving local teacher education colleges and other education partners.
• Support the delivery of trainings to preschool and primary school teachers in collaboration with teacher education colleges and education staff using a cascade model;
• Assist in adaptation of content and key LtP messages targeting parent/caregivers and dissemination strategy to reach wider audiences;
• Assist to establish a framework for LtP competencies and quality LtP standards;
• Support in the development of samples and templates of content for teachers, parents, and children on LtP;
• Update key messages and communications materials on play based learning to reflect the Ethiopian context targeting refugees and host communities;
• Support and lead all aspects of the implementation of LtP activities in refugee and host community schools and facilitate exchange of learning and standard methodologies;
• Provide technical support through regular mentoring and coaching of ECCD facilitators and primary school teachers through closely working with education officers and assistants;
• Monitor project implementation, track progress and achievements and produce quality reports;
• Work closely with the M & E staff to put in place mechanisms and processes for regular review of project data and learning;
• Ensure quality budget management through BvA analysis on monthly basis;
• Develop meaningful procurement, activity, spending plans and stick to them to avoid any over and underspending;
• Act as a focal person in all matters related to PlayMatters project in the field and collaborate closely with key education partners in refugee and host community;