INOVASI 3 - Inclusive Teaching Specialist

INOVASI 3 - Inclusive Teaching Specialist

Project Overview and Role:

Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values.

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.
This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

The Program is managed by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Purpose of the Position:

The Inclusive Teaching Specialist will report to the Disability Lead and work in close coordination with the Inclusive Education Adviser, the GEDSI and INOVASI teams as well as counterparts. The role provides technical and practical guidance to implement inclusive education in pre-primary and primary school classrooms. This cross-cutting role requires a versatile and integrated collaboration across INOVASI teams and partners to ensure a well-coordinated and synergistic approach to activities and inputs throughout the program. Key responsibilities include the identification of gaps, challenges, risks, and opportunities (entry points) across programs and provinces.

Inclusive education is a process of focusing on and responding to the diverse needs of all learners, removing barriers impeding quality education, and thereby increasing participation in learning and reducing exclusion within and from education. Inclusive education involves creating an education system which ensures the access, participation and learning achievement of all, including children disadvantaged by factors such as disability, gender, poverty, linguistic group, and geography.

Working with children
Is this position likely to come into contact with children? Yes No

Duties: Under the guidance of the Disability Lead, the Inclusive Teaching Specialist will:

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Provide technical advice, guidance and support in the areas of curriculum, assessment, training on inclusive teaching and learning to INOVASI counterparts (Ministries of Education and Culture, Research and Technology and Religious Affairs). This may include technical advice/guidance related to development of policies (national and subnational levels), guidelines, toolkits and resources that support capacity for inclusive education. Provide technical assistance and coordination related to inclusive education tiered training approaches being established by MoECRT. Collaborate with the GEDSI team and managers to identify gaps, challenges, risks, and opportunities across programs and provinces.
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Provide recommendations of relevant initiatives that have the potential to be developed into pilot interventions, to INOVASI and local partners. Work with local partners including BPMP, BGP, Teacher Training Institutes or NGOs to support implementation, scale out and to design pilot interventions that address local problems and are appropriate to the local context. Work with local partners and subnational INOVASI teams in the development of resources which support inclusion within district education ecosystems, with a particular focus on ecosystem supports such as Disability Resource Centres (ULD). Prepare plans and budgets for proposed activities using INOVASI program activity templates, and support their implementation and monitoring.
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Work with sub-national teams to assist in capacity building of staff and facilitators where required; monitor the technical quality of pilot development and implementation to ensure optimal results.
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Work with the Operations Team to procure, contract, and monitor short-term assistants for inclusive educational interventions. Assist with the design of a scale out plan and training materials for specific pilot interventions that have proved successful. Support the MERL team to plan, collect and analyse data relevant to inclusive learning to track INOVASI’s progress and to inform national policy development and reform. Contribute to presentations, reports, briefs, and other knowledge products for a range of stakeholders. Support documentation of the process, results, lessons learnt, and key recommendations of mainstreaming inclusive education for INOVASI.
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• Other duties as may reasonably be required by the Disability Lead and Deputy Director, Development Priorities, consistent with the incumbent’s qualifications and experience.

Required Qualifications:

The Inclusive Education Specialist will possess the following qualifications and experience:

• A degree in education or relevant development subject or an appropriate tertiary qualification coupled with significant relevant experience in education or social sciences.
• Minimum of 5 years professional experience working in education, in particular curriculum development, training and implementation for students with diverse backgrounds and needs.
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of inclusive teaching and learning, in particular, a clear understanding of barriers to inclusive teaching to deliver student-centred approaches.
• Demonstrated understanding of basic education and the challenges and conditions for improving and sustaining quality education in Indonesia or a similar country context. Classroom teaching experience is essential, particularly in the primary school sector.
• Familiarity with the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, Research and Technology (MOERT)’s structure and program planning process is advantageous.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively to diverse audiences.
• Strong analytical and facilitation skills.
• Sound problem solving and decision making skills;
• Ability to work independently and as a part of a team.
• Excellent spoken and written skills in Bahasa Indonesia. Fluency in English is an advantage.
• Willingness to travel to remote locations in Indonesia on a regular basis.
• Experience with DFAT or other development agency work, preferably within the education sector.
• A high level of integrity, initiative, adaptability, and ability to perform in a high-pressure environment.

Application closed on Friday, March 8th 2024 at 11.59 PM (Jakarta time)

Palladium is a child-safe organisation, and screens applicants for suitability to work with children. A copy of Palladium’s Child Protection Guidelines is available on our website: thepalladiumgroup.com/policies

Due to the anticipated volume of applications, only successful candidates will be contacted. All applications should be submitted through the Palladium website. Should you experience any issues lodging an application online please contact inovasi.recruitment@thepalladiumgroup.com stating the position in the subject line.

Company Overview:

About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the worlds most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, peoples lives.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.