Program Lead – STEP on Tech – Mantra

Mantra What if every leader across the country took one step towards improving their schools?

This is the question that drives us at Mantra4change. While there are challenges that plague the education system, we believe in the potential of education leaders to drive improvement in schools to provide enriching learning experiences to all children. Our approach towards this is by working directly with schools and clusters; enabling state and district governments to drive similar improvement initiatives; and enabling the larger school education ecosystem to drive school improvement by developing their capacity as well as sharing our learnings and solutions in the form of global public goods. Mantra4Change is currently present in 5 states – Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

Learn more about Mantra on our website, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram

About STEP on Tech

STEP (School Transformation and Empowerment Project) is the flagship program of Mantra to address the problem of lack of delivery of quality education. STEP’s focus on whole-school transformation makes the program approach more holistic and multi-staged to enable under-resourced schools deliver Quality Education. School leaders are supported closely in assessing their schools and very carefully crafting their improvement journey using the STEP framework.

To expand the reach of this project, STEP on Tech is an interesting initiative designed especially for affordable private schools to get started on their improvement journey in a contextualised way. As a part of this, leaders from affordable private schools will be supported with an engaging app on which they can assess their school on various domains, choose their improvement projects to implement, get the domain-wise resources to learn various topics of school improvement, seek mentor support to share and discuss their challenges, etc.

Position Summary

A key aspect of all our programs is restoring the agency of our stakeholders by not only building their capacity but also leaving them with the tools and means to continue developing their own capacity. This means access to a wide range of relevant and engaging learning content. We are looking for someone who is aware of the day-to-day challenges of affordable private schools and deeply interested in innovating in the area of school improvement. As a lead, you will be responsible for end-to-end delivery of this project, including managing the program, working with a small team, designing solutions, running pilots, etc.

Roles and responsibilities

• Responsible for curating a school improvement framework on holistic domains like teaching and learning, school leadership, community involvement, etc.
• In order to implement the framework, develop digital solutions to be uploaded on the app for school leaders.
• Create a self-assessment for school leaders to assess their schools on various domains to kickstart their improvement journey.
• Imagine and put forward the design of the app including the visualisation of the improvement journey, dashboards, reports, etc.
• Closely coordinate with the technical team to get the app ready for the pilot.
• Identify, grow and curate a diverse and supportive community of partners in the ecosystem to support the schools through STEP on tech
• Run the pilot with selected schools to get feedback on the app and analyse them to improve on the app for the final release and launch.
• Innovate and coordinate with various teams at Mantra to constantly build on the existing design of the product.
• Gather feedback through data analysis of product consumption data and through stakeholder interaction to improve the program and processes
• Proactively leverage his/her past experiences as an educator to understand and regularly provide inputs to strengthen the programme

As part of the organization, you would:

• Learn from, and reflect on our work, from past successes and failures.
• Say things as you see it, honestly and kindly
• Take responsibility for the quality of your work
• Find ways to take pride and joy in your work
• Respect people’s time, perspectives, skills, way of working
• Find and participate in spaces to celebrate, laugh, and share memories together.
• Work as a team, and recognize and appreciate each other’s efforts
• Listen to what others have to say, with an intent to understand.
• Proactively look for ways to support each other. Not be afraid to ask for help.
• Take steps to grow ourselves and the organization. We ask what more or what else we can do for ourselves and the organization.

Education & Experience / Eligibility

• A degree in education AND/OR experience teaching in low-income schools or government schools
• 3-4 years of experience leading design efforts for adult education in general and teacher development, in particular.
• Prior experience in doing primary or secondary research.
• Track record of independently leading a successful project or team delivering educational programs AND/OR working with schools/teachers will be an added advantage

Skills/ Competencies

• Strong written and spoken communication skills
• Critical thinking and problem-solving
• Ability to research
• Working knowledge of MS Office.
• Willingness to learn in the face of uncertainty and difficult situations
• Effective planning skills and time-task management

Remuneration: 6 – 8 LPA.