BACKGROUND: 

The International Rescue Committee, one of the world’s largest humanitarian international NGOs, provides relief, rehabilitation and development support to vulnerable people and communities over 30 countries. We began work in Ethiopia in 2000 in response to severe drought in Ethiopia’s Somali region and are currently providing assistance to Ethiopians and refuguees in six regions in Ethiopia, implementing emergency and development programs in health, water and sanitation, economic recovery and development (ERD), women’s protection and empowerment, education, child protection, and multi-sectoral emergency response.

Position Summary:

IRC is seeking an 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, , Behavioural Insights Team and Innovations for Poverty Action.

The Education officer will be responsible for ensuring that PlayMatters consortium and IRC staff identify, engage, and influence key education stakeholders 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 Education officer will report to the PlayMatters Education Manager at the field office level with additional oversight from the country level PlayMatters project team; work closely with the camp based education officers, ARRA, SCI, WEO specialists and other implementing partners to integrate Learning through Play (LtP) into existing preschool, primary school, Accelerated Learning Programs (ALP) and child friendly space 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/care givers, and children/Community. S/he will also assist to map education stakeholders, existing teaching and learning materials for preschool and primary school children in Ethiopia and existing community structure and support to establish a framework for LtP competencies and quality LtP standards. In doing so, the Education Officer will work with the education manager/Senior Education Officer to 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 and identify playful activities at community level 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/care givers and children/Community leaders.
• Engage with field level coordination leads, implementing partners, teachers, parents/Care givers, community leaders and children through structured co-creation processes
• Support the development/adaptation of training content and testing for teachers, care givers and community in refugee and refugee host communities through participatory and consultative process involving local teacher education colleges, universities, other education partners and key government counterparts .
• Support the delivery of trainings to preschool and primary school teachers, target care givers and community leaders in collaboration with teacher education colleges, university and education staff and key government counterparts using a cascade model;
• Assist in adaptation of content and testing of key LtP messages targeting parent/caregivers and dissemination strategy to reach wider audiences;
• Assist to establish a framework for LtP proficiencies and quality LtP standards;
• Support in the development of samples and templates of content for teachers, parents/care givers, community 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 oversee the implementation of LtP activities in refugee and host community schools and facilitate exchange of learning.
• Provide technical support through regular mentoring and coaching of ECCD facilitators and primary school teachers, care givers and community play ambassadors and champions on the use of LtP through closely working with education officers and assistants and community key leaders;
• Supervise project implementation, track progress and achievements and produce quality reports accurately and timely;
• Work closely with the M & E team/ 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;
• Assist to develop measurable procurement, activity, spending plans and stick to them to avoid any over and underspending;
• Support the Education Manager as requested
• Execute and carried out additional assignments as per the request by supervisors and managers

• Advanced degree from an accredited university in education management and planning, curriculum development, sociology, social works or social science related field;
• Minimum of 3 years of experience implementing education programs, teacher training, parental education.
• Proven track record of and knowledge of engaging with government, UN and NGOs;
• Demonstrated success in developing educational/training and community content and delivery;
• Strong interpersonal skills, both oral and written
• Proficiency in English required and knowing local language is mandatory.