Education Assistant at Search For Common Ground’s International

Location: Maiduguri, Borno (North-East Nigeria)

Position Summary

• An Education Assistants role that will support implementation of the education components within the “Supporting the Socio-Economic Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Groups, and other vulnerable children, in North East Nigeria” project
• In particular, the Education Assistants will provide support to children separated from armed groups, and other vulnerable children, to resume school or continue their formal education, receive necessary Back To School kits, and support ongoing monitoring of their progress. In addition, Education Assistants will support the enrolment of select enterprise adolescent children in accelerated literacy and numeracy classes.
• The Education Assistant will motivate, inspire and support children in target communities in their educational attainment, to support the knowledge and skills development of beneficiary children. 
• Reports to: Deputy Project Manager/ Child Protection Manager
• Direct Reports: The Education assistant will have no direct report

About the Project
In the past decade, states in the North East region of Nigeria have faced frequent attacks by Boko Haram militants leading to widespread displacement, violations of national laws, international humanitarian and human rights laws, and a deepening humanitarian crisis. Children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, have suffered the worst impacts as pre-existing problems of access to social protection, education and healthcare increase, new threats emerge, and the systems to protect children fails.

This project aims to ensure that children verified and separated from CJTF receive a comprehensive child protection package including counselling, psychosocial support and socio-economic reintegration and that their communities understand the importance of their separation and reintegration. Search will work closely with the children, their families and communities, and CJTF to address the psychosocial and economic needs of the children and to influence the attitudes of communities and CJTF so they understand the negative impact of associating with armed groups on children and prevent the CJTF from using children. By increasing the resilience of children associated with CJTF and increasing their employability, this project will facilitate lasting reintegration of these children and amplify positive narratives around their role in communities as productive civilian actors and agents for peace.

Roles and Responsibilities

• With support from the Child Protection Manager, Deputy Project Manager and Education Officers, implement activities according to the work plan to achieve expected results related to social reintegration, specifically education. This includes planning and implementation of activities, supporting with procurement, mapping children.
• Ensure all planned activities are implemented on time, with quality and within budget as per the work plan. Where challenges arise, ensure that these are flagged early, communicated to the Child Protection Manager and Deputy Project Manager and addressed in a timely manner.
• Identify and communicate project gaps, challenges and vulnerabilities related to Education, and more broadly, to the Child Protection and Deputy Project Manager in a timely manner and suggest possible solutions to the problems.
• Actively participate in education-related activities and meetings e.g. with School Principals, Ministry of Education and the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), where requested by the Education Officers, and seek active collaboration with other actors working in the education sector. Maintain these relationships through ongoing follow up.
• Represent Search both in the field and in formal meetings related to Education and reintegration more widely.
• Role Model, along with Community Case Workers, positive examples for children building their futures.
• Monitor progress towards the objectives and intended outputs pertaining to education using routine data, spot checks, observation, and other methodologies.
• Coordinate with Search’s procurement and administration team to ensure the timely purchases of the necessary education support materials.
• Distribute education support materials (i.e. Back To School Kits) to selected children and their Schools with proper documentation.
• Assess needs for services of vulnerable children, as related to education, and coordinate partners’ responses.
• Support provide data input for weekly and monthly reports.
• Support Search to become a key actor in the field of reintegration of children formerly associated with armed groups, and other vulnerable children, in North East Nigeria.
• Any other task relevant to the position as requested by the Child Protection Manager or Deputy Project Manager. 

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Qualifications
Education:

• University Degree or equivalent in Education, Psychology, Social Science, or a related field.

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years experience in the field of education and with children.
• Experience working with Children Associated with Armed Groups, and other vulnerable children.
• Familiarity with principles including the best interest of the child, do no harm, humanitarian principles, amongst others.

Other Relevant Requirements:

• Strong cross-cultural communication and interpersonal skills.
• Highly organised and systematic, with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience working in emergency settings
• Experience working in different communities in Borno State
• Experience working with refugees, IDPs, host communities, and other vulnerable populations
• Excellent analytical and writing skills

Desirable:

• Good analytical, problem solving and project planning skills.
• Ability to prioritise, plan, organise workflow to tight timeframes, handle multiple tasks, and be flexible with changing priorities.
• Community-oriented and respect for local culture.
• Good IT skills, particularly with MS Office - Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint.
• Strong command of both written and spoken English.
• Knowledge of a local language (Hausa, Kanuri) a must.
• Holds self and others to account to deliver on agreed goals and standards of behaviour.
• Demonstrates a high degree of professionalism/integrity.
• Provides good administrative and logistical support to the team.
• Strong attitude towards teamwork and collaboration.
• Actively seeks support in addressing difficulties in the execution of duties.
• Strategic thinking and effective contribution to own work and organisational development.
• Sound judgement and decision-making in complex situations.
• Strong emotional intelligence including self-awareness.
• Leads by example to motivate high performance of others.
• Strong commitment to continuous learning.