RTI's International Education Division is supporting education development around the world by strengthening education policy, management and practice in order to achieve measurable improvement in teaching and learning. From our well-established reputation in education system strengthening, to innovative work in early grade assessment and learning, RTI is improving education quality, relevance and efficiency through implementation of projects funded by USAID, DFID, Australian Aid and other donors and clients.
The International Education Division is currently accepting applications for a Senior Technical Advisor position to support the USAID-funded Tusome Pamoja project to improve early grade reading in Tanzania. This is a full-time position with residency in Tanzania.
The Senior Technical Advisor will provide leadership, management, and technical assistance for Result Areas 2 and 3 of the project, with specific emphasis on (i) delivering and outstanding deliverables and (ii) developing a plan for learning and feedback form activity implementation.
Primary Responsibilities:
Result Area 2: Skills delivery system strengthened
- Work closely with Result Area 1 team and M&E teams to design a strategy and process to transform operational research and M&E findings into policy briefs for presentation to GoT counterparts and donors. Particular emphasis is to be placed on mastery of Kiswahili by pre-primary and primary students; teacher transfer issues; and teacher attendance/time-on-task issues
- Work closely with the Result Area 1 team to refine the teacher coaching strategy implemented by WEOs and establish a strategy for the remaining two years to ensure fuel costs currently supported by TP are included within the appropriate department budget line items
- Collaborate with the M&E team to institutionalize a reading assessment at the regional and district levels and support the use of results to inform quality assurance in schools
- Leverage the School Information System (SIS) to improve the capacity to make data-driven decisions at school, ward and district levels in support of the 3R programs
Result Area 3: Effective engagement of parents and community increased
- Monitor the implementation and assess the effectiveness of the “self-help” learning program on parent engagement and attitude toward their children’s participation in schooling
- Monitor the implementation and assess the effectiveness of the Parent Teacher Partnership program on community oversight and establish guidelines and recommendations for low-cost replication in other regions
- Review activities designed to improve the learning environment and assess the relative impact on pupil attendance and pupil learning.
Required Skills and Qualifications:
- Master’s Degree in education, social work, communication or a relevant field.
- At least 9 years of experience in technical direction for improved educational outcomes.
- Knowledge of current implementing partners and development partners working in Tanzania preferred.
- Prior experience with the development of early grade reading, education systems strengthening and national and district-level service delivery preferred.
- The candidate must be professionally proficient and fluent in written and spoken English.
- Proficiency in Swahili is preferred, but not required.