Education Assistant at Search For Common Ground’s International

Locations: Maiduguri, Borno

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.

Position Summary

• The Education Assistants role is to 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. 

Roles and Responsibilities

• Participate in developing the activity plan for the education component and implement the activities on time, with quality as per the plan. 
• Identify and communicate project gaps, challenges and vulnerabilities related to Education
• Actively participate in education-related meetings at the community and interagency level e.g. with School Principals, Ministry of Education, education sector and the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), where requested by the supervisor.  
• Distribute education support materials (i.e. Back to School Kits) to the beneficiaries.
• Identify children within the case load with complex needs that may affect their school attendance and coordinate the case management officers and other partners to address these needs. 
• Provide the necessary data and information and participate in drafting activity and monthly reports.

Education

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

Required Experience:

• Minimum of 1 year 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.