Job Purpose:

Under the supervision of Program/Project Manager, the School Officer is responsible for supporting and guiding the principals in overall management of 8-10 schools in his/her assigned cluster, in line with the school policy/guidelines. Through facilitation, coordination and regular monitoring, the SO ensures improved academic quality, capacity building of the principals and standardized management practices.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

Facilitation:

• Works with principals in identifying & prioritizing the school needs
• Facilitates the principal in developing School Improvement Plan (SIP) and ensures its implementation as per specified timeline. Supports the principal in documenting the progress, discusses and agrees on alternate course of action(s).
• Holds quarterly cluster-based coordination meetings with the principals for information sharing, follows up progress on quarterly objectives, discusses community issues and generates ideas for continuous improvement. Maintains minutes of the discussions & decisions, updates the PMs on the same and seeks guidance where needed.
• Guides and facilitates the principal in ensuring that school policy guidelines are implemented and adapted.
• Builds capacity of the principals so that they are able to identify and report the training needs of teaching staff.  Reports the training needs to the Program/Project Manager
• Coordinates between the school, Program and Training Department for execution of training

Monitoring & Record keeping:

• Conducts joint classroom observations with the principals to monitor quality of teaching and learning in schools and ensure good team work among the principal and teachers of every school.
• Ensures availability and optimal utilization of all resources including curriculum guides, teaching and learning material (ECE, Science & Math kits), manuals, library resources, IT resources
• Follows up progress against quarterly objectives in schools and reports accordingly on a monthly basis.
• Ensures that co-curricular guidelines are followed and activities carried out accordingly in each school.
• Ensures that principals maintain record and update data in schools and EMIS; the same is reported to the PM on standard formats & specified schedule

Coordination:

• Works closely with communities, SMCs and PTAs & builds their capacity to support principals/schools according to their roles and responsibilities
• Holds quarterly meetings with PTAs/SMCs; principal records minutes of the meetings
• Interacts with PTAs & parents to ensure participation in their child’s academic progress and other school affairs as per school policy guidelines.
• Disseminates information and documents to schools in a timely manner
• Coordinates with the PM for raising PRs ensuring timely delivery of books, teaching and learning material and all other assets including furniture items at schools.
• Coordinates with M&E through the PM in teacher and student assessment and data collation process.
• Weekly reporting to Project Manager on schools’ status and progress in light of their work plan.
• Maintains photo library and shares with DIL team as needed.

Education, qualification, skills and experience:

Education: (Formal degree)

BA/BSc in any discipline from a recognized college/university

Qualification: (Certification, diploma etc)

• B.Ed (Desirable)

(Relevant) Experience:

• Two years teaching and field experience at school level field Experience   

Skills: (Essential and Desirable)

• Good oral and written communication skills in English & Urdu (E)

• Good interpersonal skills and an ability to deal with principals, teachers and communities  (E)
• Ability to organize and prioritize tasks (D)
• Team player (D)
• Good analytical skills (E)

Technical knowledge/ know how

• Good command on MS office; in particular Excel