Senior Reading Specialist

EDC’s International Development Division (IDD) focuses on three major areas: literacy and basic education, youth livelihoods and workforce development, and health. Another key strand of EDC’s international work focuses on helping countries expand economic opportunity and build civic society.

EDC works with governments, agencies, and other partners in 35 countries to develop programs that are respectful of cultural traditions and beliefs. The international division comprises six regional centers coordinating EDC’s work in West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia.

EDC is preparing for a program in Tanzania focused providing technical assistance and instructional materials targeted at improving lifelong learning skills, defined as mastery of early grade reading, writing, and arithmetic. Technical assistance will cover: (1) improving quality of basic skills instruction at the early primary level; (2) strengthening Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) skills delivery systems; and (3) increasing community and parental engagement in early primary education. These three components align with the Government of Tanzania (GoT)’s ten-year Education Development Sector Plan (EDSP)(see Attachment 5, item 22) and other reforms underway, such as Big Results Now (BRN), Performance4Results (P4R), and Global Partnership for Education Literacy and Numeracy Support (GPE LANES) program on 3R’s (reading, writing, and arithmetic) reform.

Senior Reading Specialist:
The senior reading specialist provides overall technical oversight and guidance to the project’s support to improved reading instruction. He/she supervises the production of all Tusome Pamoja-supported reading material, all Tusome Pamoja-supported trainings in reading, all teacher and classroom supervision and monitoring and all student testing efforts. He/she ensures complementarity of activity approaches in reading across the Tusome Pamoja regions, liaises with government representatives and technicians on technical matters, and bears ultimate responsibility for ensuring that children in Tusome Pamoja schools achieve improved outcomes in reading.

Education: Requires a Master’s Degree in education, preferably with a specialty in early grade reading. A Ph.D. in education with a focus on early childhood education and/or early grade learning is preferred.

Skills and Experience: At least 8 years of experience in programs in sub-Saharan Africa that work specifically to improve early grade reading is required. Prior experience with the development of early grade reading materials, training programs, classroom monitoring protocols, and tests and assessments, including EGRA, is required. Prior experience with supporting civil-society based monitoring of reading outcomes is preferred.

Language: The candidate must be professionally proficient and fluent in written and spoken
English. It is preferred, but not required, that the candidate be conversant and fluent in written
and spoken Kiswahili (FS 2+).

HOW TO APPLY:

Interested applicants may send resumes to IDDJobs@edc.org. Please list the position and region to which you are applying in the subject line of the email.