Project Manager

Job Title: Project Manager, Assessments

Organisation: Central Square Foundation

Team: School Governance

Location: Udaipur, Rajasthan

About Central Square Foundation:

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus on improving children's learning outcomes, especially in low-income communities.

Learn more about CSF on our website.

About the team:

The Government of India has carried out several large-scale initiatives over the last few years. The objective was to provide necessary inputs and access to strengthen the school education system. While these were pivotal steps that facilitated achieving near-universal enrolment in primary grades, it is imperative for the governance focus to now shift to ensuring attainment of learning outcomes. One way forward is through the public disclosure of learning outcomes at the school level. Watch the playlist here.

To achieve this, there is a need for a:

• Reliable, standardised and uniform measures to assess and disclose learning quality at the school level
• Regulatory mechanism for schools that holds them accountable for making children learn

At CSF, we look at governance-level reforms that make schools accountable for learning and underpin the role of a neutral body in disclosing this learning reliably. We support the institutionalisation of:

• State School Standards Authority: CSF provides evidence-based knowledge to the states to set up a specialised, independent and neutral regulator for the sector as laid out in the NEP 2020.

• Competency-based Census Assessments (CCA): To measure learning outcomes in schools, CSF engages with the state/national assessment bodies in implementing standardised competency-based census assessments to generate reliable and comparable learning outcomes data to measure the performance of schools.

• School Accreditation/Certification: To implement a research-informed grading process for schools based on their student achievement of learning outcomes.

Position Summary

CSF is looking for a Project Manager, Assessments, based out of Udaipur, Rajasthan to build the state's SCERT's capacity in developing high-quality competency-based census assessments (CCA).

The work will revolve around strengthening their processes for creating questions, blueprints and sample papers for primary and upper primary grade levels, and the development of the state's curriculum framework. The fulfillment of the responsibilities will require effective coordination with other bodies of state's education department (the Directorate, the Board, etc.). It is a full-time role and the Project Manager would report to the Project Lead of the state CSF team.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct capacity-building workshops to ensure smooth functioning of, and delivery by, the Assessment Cell of Rajasthan's SCERT
• Set up project management processes and guidelines and ensure that all activities are driving towards the defined goals
• Carry out relevant preliminary research as and when required
• Train the concerned personnel on using basic technology and improve their creation and review processes
• Curate and/or develop technology for various workstreams of the program and facilitate their smooth rollout in coordination with the concerned departments
• Develop and manage strong working relationships with government stakeholders at the state and district levels
• Work with expert teams at CSF on the assigned work streams to contextualize the same for the state
• Knowledge management and documentation of the implementation of work in the state

Required Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

• Bachelor's degree from a reputed university; a Master's degree preferred (in education, development studies, public policy, and social sciences)
• 2 to 6 years (for Project Manager) of work experience, preferably in the education sector demonstrating a knowledge of curriculum development, assessment and/or content creation
• Keen interest in the Development/Education sector
• Fluent in English and Hindi with excellent reading and writing skills. Preference will be given to candidates who know the local language well.
• An experience in handling large data and analysis (using spreadsheets or SQL) preferred
• Past experience working with state and district-level governance and institutional structures is preferred
• Knowledge and experience working on project management, large-scale program implementation with multiple delivery tracks, and researching and monitoring among others
• Strong stakeholder management, problem-solving, and analytical skills

Additional Details

• Start Date: As soon as possible
• Compensation: Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend upon the candidate's experience levels.

How to Apply

• Fill out the application form here.
• Upload your resume on the application form (File Name: Firstname_Lastname_Resume).