Position: State Lead – Telangana

Location: Hyderabad

Reporting to: Associate Project Director, FLN State Projects

About Central Square Foundation

Founded in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit philanthropic

foundation working on the vision of ensuring quality school education for all children in

India. We are driven by our mission to transform the school education system with a focus

on improving learning outcomes of children, especially from low-income communities.

We believe that ensuring Universal, Early, Conceptual and Procedural Mastery of

Foundational Skills is absolutely essential for the overall success of education system. In

order to achieve this, we partner with individuals and social impact organizations to bring

innovative solutions in education, as well as work with the government to drive systemic

impact. We collaborate with the ecosystem to leverage knowledge, build evidence and create

proven tools around critical issues such as early learning, EdTech, classroom instruction

methods and governance.

We also support exceptional social entrepreneurs with powerful ideas, undertake

application-oriented research, provide a platform for sharing of innovation, and collaborate

with other stakeholders in the ecosystem to find policy solutions – all towards enabling

sustained change in India’s educational system.

CSF’s team members bring a deep sense of commitment and passion towards our

collective vision that every child deserves quality education. We strive for excellence in

everything we do and collaborate to create an impact. We encourage an entrepreneurial

outlook that evokes new and bold ideas along with taking smart risks. CSF provides a

dynamic, learning and positive environment that is driven by our strong sense of values.

Position Summary

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 clearly emphasizes Foundation Literacy

and Numeracy (FLN) and puts a rather ambitious target of ‘ensuring that all learners in

Grade 3 achieve FLN by 2025’. CSF is working with 11 state governments to help them design

and launch their contextualized versions of the National FLN Mission. In a few states like MP,

UP, Gujarat and Haryana, CSF has partnered with a coalition of partner organizations for this

purpose and work is underway. In a few other states (including Telangana), we have recently

recruited top talent as project consultants through the EILP initiative, who will be placed as

part of Project Management Units (PMUs) in state capitals.

In Telangana, CSF, in partnership with CEGIS, has signed an MoU with the state

government to support catalytic education reforms with a primary focus on the FLN mission,

and has also onboarded a team of project consultants through the EILP program. The major

goals of the team would be two-fold

(i) Support the government of Telangana to set up, launch and implement a state-

wide FLN mission

(ii) Support the set up of a smaller pilot in a few mandals (blocks) to test innovative

pedagogical and governance interventions, which can then be scaled state-wide

based on evaluations (pilot team to be hired closer to school reopening)

The State Lead (Telangana) at CSF will play a critical role in ensuring that all children in

Grade 3 in Telangana achieve basic foundational literacy and numeracy skills over the next

5 years. They will be CSF’s primary point of liaison with all relevant government

stakeholders in Telangana including the Principal Secretary (Education), Director of School

Education, Director (SCERT) etc. They will lead the team of Project Consultants, and the pilot

team, to ensure that all major goals as outlined above are met.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

1. Lead CSF’s engagement with all state government stakeholders

a. Support the state government in working towards and achieving milestones

outlined in National Education Policy 2020, particularly around Foundation

Literacy and Numeracy (FLN)

b. Direct and indirect engagement with senior political, bureaucratic and

education leadership in the states to ensure alignment, focus and action on

achieving FLN mission goals

2. Lead the design and delivery of FLN program in the state

a. Work closely with expert teams at CSF (focused on pedagogy, governance,

M&E, communications, EdTech etc) to design customised interventions for the

state government

b. Ensuring all the major workstreams and interventions as per the program

design get activated in the state and get implemented in consultation with

stakeholders. Some of these could include

i. Goal-setting around the FLN mission, and communication to all

stakeholders

ii. Review and redesign of teaching learning material, in alignment with

SCERT

iii. Design and delivery of teacher professional development programs

iv. Design and implementation of monitoring and data systems

v. Roll-out of meaningful and periodic assessments for student learning

state-wide

vi. Implementation of a high-fidelity home learning program

3. Lead and guide the Telangana project team

a. Directly manage the work and performance of 3-5 project consultants –

responsible for their productivity, development and well-being

b. In addition, manage the pilot field team through the Project Manager

4. Liaise with partners and donors to the project as needed

a. Facilitate identification and alignment with all other technical partners and

consultants that the project may need and support in effective onboarding and

management

b. Play an active role in donor engagement on the project – support in reporting,

coordination and compliance

Required Qualifications, Skills and Mindsets

• 8 + years of relevant and work experience (education/govt consulting/

development sector / program management) with increasing responsibilities

• Passion to make a scaled impact in education and belief in the possibility of

foundational learning for all children irrespective of their background

• Excellent people and project delivery skills, including ability to create project plans,

drive execution through small teams, manage multiple projects at a time and

maturity to influence multiple internal and external stakeholders

• Experience of implementation of School Education sector projects with state

governments involving capacity building, teaching-learning improvements and

assessments would be preferred

• Ability to synthesize technical insights into actionable program agendas, facilitate

conflicting points of view, drive collective decision-making

• Entrepreneurial spirit and ‘can-do’ attitude & hands-on operating style suited to

working in a small organization setting, where teamwork and resourcefulness are

highly valued

• Willingness to adapt to dynamic nature of work and travel

• Strong written & verbal communication skills and data analysis + presentation skills

• Fluency in both English and Telugu preferred

Compensation

Remuneration will be competitive with Indian philanthropy pay scales and will depend

upon the candidate’s experience levels. Please fill this link to apply for the role.