Special Educator, Enable Program

Pratham Education FoundationJob Opportunities, Program Roles

**About Pratham**:
Pratham was founded in 1995, to provide pre-school education to children in Mumbai slums. Over the last 27 years, Pratham has grown to be one of the largest non-profit organizations working to provide quality education to children and youth in over 20 states and union territories across the country, through a range of interventions.

**About the ENABLE Program**
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 while highlighting India’s commitment to achieving SDG Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda seeks to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all”. It has accorded highest priority to achieving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) by all students by Grade 3. The Policy especially recognizes the importance of creating enabling mechanisms for Children with disabilities who were about 5 million in 2019. Alarmingly, a large proportion of these children do not attend educational institutions, and 45% even struggle to attain foundational literacy. Hence many do not reach secondary education and beyond. ENABLE (Equity in Accessing Numeracy and Basic Literacy Education), is a multi-pronged intervention designed to strengthen the FLN for 3-9 year old children with disabilities. The 3 key objective of this program is to:
1. Strengthen Government's mainstream service delivery mechanism to ensure foundational learning outcomes for learners with disabilities (LwD)
2. Identify, address and overcome attitudinal barriers and stereotypes towards learners with disabilities in families and communities
3. Facilitate partnership between relevant government departments, civil society, private sector and communities in support for learners with disabilities

**Position Summary**:
A Special Educator assesses the learner, and plans and tailors teaching plans according to the learners' abilities by adapting materials, monitor progress, and manage behavioural issues. They will promote inclusivity through peer engagement, and collaborate with professionals, parents and project teams to develop and validate inclusive education packages.

**Key responsibilities**:
++++ means day to day high frequency tasks which may usually be process oriented
+++ means weekly tasks/milestones that may require a bit of cognitive load
++ means the task have to be accomplished once a month
+ means the task needs attention once per quarter that may require creativity, cognition etc.

**1)Learning and Teaching**
- Assess students’ abilities formatively and craft teaching plans
- Adapt learning materials to students’ needs
- Keep track of and reflect on students’ progress
- Monitor children’s behavioural patterns and arrange appropriate interventions if needed
- Find Undertake engaging activities to teach skills (e.g. drawing and theatre drama)
- Manage classroom crises and resolve conflict
- Prepare students for transition to the next grade
- Discuss with parents about their children’s performance and concerns
- Promote an inclusive environment through peer engagement

**2) Develop and Test Inclusive Education Packages**
- Support the project team in developing packages for inclusive education
- Develop and validate inclusive education packages

**3) Relationship Building and Training**
- Work collaboratively with other professionals who work with children with disabilities
- Collaborate with the support staff (e.g. school counsellors and speech therapists) to create holistic intervention plans
- Coordinate with teachers and Anganwadis in classroom

**4) Other Responsibilities**
- Enrol children and complete necessary documentation.
- Develop and implement appropriate intervention strategies.
- Observe and document child progress, maintaining comprehensive case records.
- Keep accurate daily attendance records.
- Collaborate with Center Heads and Center Support Associates to ensure consistent attendance.
- Prepare monthly reports, case studies and success stories.

**Required Skills and Knowledge**:
**Skills**
Ability to assess students' abilities, adapt learning material, and tailor teaching plans according to the learner
Heightened Communication Skills and collaborative attitude
Expertise and confidence to manage an inclusive classroom
Ability to prepare digital reports for better documentation
Out of box thinking for planning and executing creative activities

**Knowledge**
Educational needs of varying disabilities
Inclusive pedagogy and teaching methods.
Collaborative and interdisciplinary teamwork
Knowledge of principles and philosophy of inclusive education, along with national laws, policies, and acts for people with disabilities
Knowledge to use MS Office tools (Word, Powerpoint, Excel)
Familiarity with the principles of UDL, which involve designing instruction to accommodate a wide range of learner variability (additional)

**Required Qualifications & Abilities**:

- Bachelor's degree in Special Education
- RCI registration
- Minimum 3 years of rela