Madhi Foundation - Senior Manager - Curriculum Design & Learning

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 conceptualise 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 (Programme Design & Delivery)

The job vacancy detailed here pertains to Programme Design & Delivery Team. To know more about the work we do, check out our information brochure at bit.ly/MadhiFdn_LearnMore

The Programme Design & Delivery sub-vertical comprises four teams: Content Development, Capacity Building, Enjoy English (Delivery) and CEFL (Delivery). These teams are a multifaceted group; comprising content developers, curricular specialists, professional development architects, trainers, project managers and field staff all of whom prize dynamism and versatility in their approach to work. The sub-vertical works closely with the two other sub-verticals namely "State Reform" 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 Programme Design & Delivery team core focus is to develop robust programme models, develop high quality materials and training modules to ensure effective implementation of Madhi's programmes to attain Foundational Learning at scale. 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.

About the role : The Senior Manager will be expected to anchor the curriculum creation and instructional design for all projects at Madhi. You will ensure that the content delivered to students and teachers is academically rigorous and contextually relevant. You will also be expected to support the team to strategise content offerings and provide pedagogical support for developing the product offering. You will manage and lead the creation of various types of content such as lesson plans, worksheets, and learning videos about literacy and numeracy, designing Madhi's assessment tools and other collaterals on a need basis.

The Job Description : Below is an indicative set of responsibilities you will be required to do 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 organisation's needs. This role will keep evolving as per the program/project requirement and will need rigour from all stakeholders involved to make it successful.

In this role, some of your responsibilities will include :

Programme Strategy

- Create the overall content strategy & roadmap and thereby improve classroom practices

- Implement 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

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

Research and design ready-to-use classroom resources and teacher-facing instructional content with a strong understanding of the subjects (English and math) and the context

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

Ensure on-time delivery of teacher handbooks, workbooks and other learning and training materials

- Support the ideation for the teacher and administrator professional development framework to train and onboard teachers, HMs and BRTEs to the programme

- Design clear and comprehensive guidelines to create high-quality digital content for training teachers and other administrators

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

- Co-lead the curricular planning workshops with the state department and obtain necessary approvals from the SMEs of the relevant government departments

- Anchor the creation of all learning assessments of Madhi's projects - including impact assessments (such as baseline/end-line assessments and other diagnostic assessments)

- Support the ideation of training and classroom observation frameworks that are aligned with the M&E framework

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

Team & Stakeholder Management

- Track project progress and support the team in achieving their individual goals

- Manage a highly skilled and motivated team and constantly strive to help them grow and realise their potential

- Ensure all team management structures are followed diligently and personalised support is provided whenever required

- Build and foster relationships with government stakeholders to ensure effective implementation of Madhi's programmes

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 specialisation in early-grade education

- 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 concerning 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

Mandatory prerequisites include:

- At least 8 years of relevant work experience with 5 years of relevant experience in curriculum design, content development, training or programme design

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

- A bachelor's degree in a relevant field of specialisation

- Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint

This role will report to Associate Director, Programme Design & Delivery

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