Project Associate (State System Reform), Madhya Pradesh

Introduction to The Education Alliance (TEA)

The Education Alliance (‘TEA’ registered as Network for Quality Education Foundation) is a non-profit organisation registered in India to catalyse quality transformations in the public-school system through strategic partnership support. TEA aims to build an ecosystem in which governments can strategically partner with mission oriented non-profit educational organisations to deliver high quality education. Our goal is to empower government schools to create the next generation of leaders by transforming the quality of education offered in these schools. A high-quality education for every child in India would call for a system that is accountable, collaborative and equitable.

TEA sets up a Project Management Unit (PMU) to support the State education departments to partner more strategically with non-state actors and to design and deliver programmes with the objective of building governments’ own capacity to sustain these initiatives post the exit of external partners.

In order to deliver on its goals, TEA engages in three broad areas of work: dialogue with governments to design the frameworks for suitable partnership models, identify high-quality and mission-aligned non-profit partners willing to engage with government, and conduct research to test the efficacy of the model in order to inform the rest of our work.

Please refer to our website for further details: www.theeducationalliance.org

Brief on TEA’s Work with Government Education Departments

TEA is currently working across 4 states on the following programs:

1. Delhi
   • School Quality Enhancement Program with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (since 2015) – a program that aims to deliver high quality education through a Government-Partnership School (G-PS) model.
   • Program Assistance Unit with Directorate of Education, Delhi Government (since 2020) – TEA team supporting Education minister’s advisory team for planning and implementation of education reforms.
2. Tamil Nadu: PMU for NGO partnerships and Systemic education reforms (since 2018) – The PMU started supporting Samagra Shiksha, Tamil Nadu in 2018 in its NGO partnership strategy and in 2021, on invitation by the State extended its mandate to support the Commissioner of School Education on reforms across 15 initiatives identified the state.
3. Tripura: PMU for NGO partnerships and State FLN mission (since 2020) – Similar to its function in Tamil Nadu, TEA plays the role of a PMU to facilitate effective collaboration between NGOs and Samagra Shiksha in Tripura. The PMU has now also taken on the mandate of supporting the State’s FLN mission to meet targets of foundational literacy and numeracy.
4. Madhya Pradesh
   • Project Management Unit for Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) (since 2020) – TEA plays the role of a PMU and brings together strategic and knowledge partners to work with the state to strengthen foundational literacy and numeracy skills of students and to build institutional capacity on FLN initiatives.
   • Strategic partnership with BCG under SATH-E Extension for System Reform (since 2020) – TEA started working alongside BCG State team for the education reform process in M.P. under the NITI Aayog’s SATH-E project in 2020.

TEA’s Team consists of highly motivated individuals who share a passion for improving the quality of education for all children in India All projects teams are based locally in the partnership State and work out of the local Education Department offices.

Project Associate – State System Reform, Madhya Pradesh

Background & Context

In 2017, Project SATH-E 1.0 (Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital) – Education was launched under a tripartite agreement between Niti Ayog, State of Madhya Pradesh and the Boston Consulting Group & Piramal Foundation of Education Leadership and undertook several initiatives in first 2 years to enable a system-wide transformation and improve access, equity and quality across grade 1-12. In 2020, TEA started a partnership with BCG to jointly work on the SATH-E team mandate and deliver on the following key objectives of SATH Phase 2.0 from 2020 onwards.

In 2021-22, the TEA team members have also started worked closely with the School Education Department for its flagship project on establishing ‘CM Rise schools’ – 9,200 exemplar government schools (K-12/K-10) with state-of-the-art infrastructure to provide holistic education to all students. The team is working closely with the Principal Secretary and the School Education Department in outlining overall strategy and driving the program management office for implementation of various areas under CM Rise including infrastructure, staffing, staff training and development, transportation amongst others.

Roles & Responsibilities – Project Associate (State System Reform)

The Project Associate (State System Reform) will be supporting Senior Managers on CM Rise Schools project along with SATH initiatives with the State Education department. The key roles and responsibilities will be (but not limited to):

• Program approach and implementation
  • Supporting Senior Managers / Project Managers and external partners’ team on designing program strategy and creating an action plan for state transformation based on on-ground learnings
  • Developing deep understanding of problem statement (primary and secondary research)
  • Driving problem-solving to design effective and implementable solutions
  • Conducting research and analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) to develop the team’s understanding of system problems, evidence-based solutions and innovations
• Stakeholder management
  • Liaison with various stakeholders in the Education department as well as external organisations working with Education Department for driving workstreams
  • Conduct periodic update meetings/check-ins with stakeholders to communicate program progress
• Program tracking and documentation
  • Design actionable implementation plan with clear timeline and owners for project tracking
  • Ensure high quality of documents (reports, presentations, proposals etc.) prepared by the team

Skills and Qualifications

• Preferred work experience of 1 to 4 years
• Good research, writing skills, and communication skills. Ability to synthesize complex Information from multiple sources and develop an informed perspective
• Strong project management skills and delivering high-quality output in a short period of time
• High level of flexibility and responsiveness with the ability to shift priorities quickly as per project demands
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to manage stakeholders effectively to incorporate competing points of view
• Demonstrated history of working independently and delivering results with some supervision
• Entrepreneurial spirit and ‘can-do’ attitude
• Experiences working with government and in education sector is desirable, though not necessary
• Fluency in both English and Hindi required

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Expected date of Joining: Immediate

Employment Type: Permanent / Full Time

Location: Bhopal

Please send your resumes along with a letter of intent to info@theeducationalliance.org; please mention “Project Associate – State System Reform” in the subject of your email.