Madhi Foundation - Lead - Curriculum & Classroom Practice

About Madhi;

Madhi Foundation was established in 2016 as a non-profit organization committed to the cause of bridging the equity gap in education for children across India. The Foundation draws its inspiration from the Tamil proverb, "Destiny can be conquered with intellect (Madhi)". Madhi Foundation specifically works to solve the foundational learning crisis in India. Our vision, "Foundational Learning First, so every child is set up for success", guides our every action and gives our work the purpose and direction it needs.

What we do:

- Madhi works closely with the Tamil Nadu School Education Department to conceptualize and implement large scale quality improvement programmes in Tamil Nadu's government schools. Over the course of the next 5 years Madhi will strengthen its existing programmes in the state (as well as undertake new programmes) with the singular aim of ensuring transformative improvement in the quality of school education in Tamil Nadu and beyond.

- Ennum Ezhuthum: We are currently also working as the 'Chief Management Partner' for Tamil Nadu's official Foundational Learning Mission, The 'Ennum Ezhuthum Mission' - a Rs. 500 Cr Mission of national and regional importance aimed at universalising foundational learning for all children in Tamil Nadu's 37,000 government schools.

- Enjoy English: Enjoy English is a tech-based product-service offering aimed at improving foundational English among children from low-exposure to English contexts. It is one of a kind idea that adopts an oracy first approach to language learning which is different from most programmes that adopt a subject teaching approach to English learning.

- Communities Enabling Foundational Learning (CEFL): CEFL aims to equip the parents with the knowledge, skills and tools to understand the quality of foundational education their children receive in public schools and in turn, start advocating for improving the quality of education with stakeholders such as teachers, administrators and local political leaders. We support parents to establish peer groups and networks of parents and community members to support each other towards educating their child and collectively demand for the same.

What is the work culture at Madhi like?

- The work culture at Madhi is built both organically and inorganically. We articulate our core values and reinforce them through actions consistently. Team members imbibe Madhi's values and help grow the culture. Our core values (Mission obsession, Empathy, Resilience, Integrity, Inquiry) form the basis of our actions, policy and interactions. Madhi nurtures a collaborative work culture where individual growth and team success go hand in hand.

- Given the nature of our work (our close partnership with the government) we often realise that we work with partners who espouse a work culture that is vastly different from ours which can sometimes create a sense of cultural dissonance. This is not something we are able to change and we expect team members to join us knowing full well that when working with critical partners and stakeholders there would certainly arise a need to adapt and accept the differences and the challenges that come from working in such an environment. We have been fortunate to find team members over the years who have joined us and helped build a strong and purposeful culture and despite our rapid growth we have been able to sustain our culture over time.

Your team (State Reform):

- The State Reform sub-vertical comprises four teams: Ennum Ezhuthum (State team), Ennum Ezhuthum (District team), Public Libraries Management and Assessment Cell. These teams are a multifaceted group; comprising curriculum leads, instructional design specialists, project managers and product managers all of whom prize dynamism and versatility in their approach to work. The sub-vertical works closely with the two other sub-verticals namely "Programme Design & Delivery" and "Data & Technology" counterparts to ensure that we are able to deliver high quality projects to all our stakeholders and learn from our implementation to iteratively improve the effectiveness of the programmes.

- The State Reform team's core focus is to advocate and build momentum for tried and tested models of intervention, support the state to develop high quality materials and training modules to ensure effective implementation to attain Foundational Learning at scale. The team comprises generalists who go above and beyond to ensure that the public service delivery of the projects is effective and efficient. All Madhi's teams work together seamlessly to make magic happen day after day, doing whatever it takes to take us closer to the vision of reimagining school systems to eliminate the foundational learning crisis in India.

- The team member will be expected to anchor the curriculum creation and instructional design for Ennum Ezhuthum Mission as part of the State Project Management Unit and fulfill Madhi's mandate with the Government. You will ensure that the content delivered to students and teachers is academically rigorous and contextually relevant. You will support in managing and leading the creation of various types of content such as lesson plans, worksheets, learning videos pertaining to literacy and numeracy and managing the curricular framework.

The challenges you will help solve at Madhi:

- Addressing the unique challenges that the public education space faces

- Planning and implementing projects applying various permutations and combinations that ultimately address the foundational learning challenges

- Contributing purposefully to the growing body of knowledge on what works and what doesn't work to improve last mile educational outcomes for children, through the public sector delivery; in particular- by contextualizing findings to the Indian context

- We are an outcome-driven organization and we do not obsess over clocking in and clocking out. As the sub-vertical head, you will be responsible for identifying ways in which we can hold your team accountable to a high bar of excellence with a singular focus on outcomes by setting up systems that let us keep our eye on the ball at all times

The Job Description:

Below is an indicative set of responsibilities you will be required to lead as part of your role. We believe that a job description is best created collaboratively where the individual joining the team and the senior leadership team together define the role in greater detail so it reflects your aspirations and ambitions as much as it does the organization's needs. A detailed description will be jointly created once the selection process has been completed and you have accepted our offer of employment.

In this role, some of your responsibilities will include

Programme Strategy:

- Co-Creating the overall content strategy & roadmap along with Senior Manager, Curriculum & Learning Design and thereby improving classroom practices

- Implementing a cohesive, research-based design across content and programme, such that the tools and content offerings accelerate student achievement of learning outcomes

- Propose improvements by researching curricula from other educational systems and varied resources to incorporate the best approaches to teaching and learning in classrooms

Curriculum & Content Development:

- Leading the creation of curricular framework for student-facing content

- Researching and designing ready-to-use classroom resources and teacher-facing instructional content with a strong understanding of the subjects (English & Math) and the context

- Designing a comprehensive process framework and guidelines for the TLM team and overseeing adherence to it at all points in the creation cycle

- Ensuring on time delivery of teacher handbooks, workbooks and other learning and teaching materials

- Designing clear and comprehensive guidelines to create high-quality digital content for Class 1- 5 students that can be used as digital interactive lessons by teachers in the classroom.

- Anchoring and managing the entire content creation cycle by setting processes & structures for the team to produce high-quality output adhering to Madhi standards

- Creating exemplary content materials based on best practices adhering to Madhi standards.

- Co-leading the curricular and training planning workshops with the state department and obtaining necessary approvals from the SMEs of the relevant government departments

- Supporting the creation of classroom observation frameworks that are aligned to the M&E framework and demands of the curriculum and learning materials

- Observing classrooms to improve understanding of the context and strategising the effective adoption of the new/modified instructional design materials

Team Management:

- Tracking project progress and supporting the team achieve overall their individual goals

- Ensuring all team and project management structures are followed diligently

- Supporting team projects and tasks where collaborative goals are to be achieved.

You will thrive in this role if you:

- Have a master's degree in a relevant field of study from a reputed institution preferably with a specialization in early grade education or curriculum design.

- Possess excellent leadership and coaching skills.

- Have exceptional planning skills and set a high bar of excellence for yourself and your team.

- Have demonstrable skills with respect to attention to detail.

- Have prior experience working with government stakeholders.

- Have a keen interest in pedagogy and strive to read and research extensively on it.

- Have a penchant for instructional design and know exactly how to break down complex processes for consumption.

Prerequisites include:

- 6-8 years of work experience with at least 5 years of relevant experience in curriculum design, content development, or programme design.

- At least 3 years of managerial experience with a team span of a minimum 5 members.

- A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field of specialization.

- Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

- Ability to speak, read, and understand Tamil.

This role will report to: Senior Manager, Project Management - EE Mission

Location: Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Please note: You will be expected to bring your own laptop with updated software (MS Office 2016)

Remuneration: INR 12 LPA to 15 LPA