Senior Education Officer at Search For Common Ground’s International

Position Summary

The Senior Education Officer’s primary aim is to support implementation of the education components of the “Supporting the Socio-Economic reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups including the Civilian Joint Task Force in North East Nigeria” programme. More specifically, providing and coordinating support to the children separated from CJTF to resume school, continue their formal education, receive necessary Back To School kits, and support ongoing monitoring of their progress.

The Senior Education Officer will Implement education programmes in line with Search’s Conflict Sensitivity and Common Ground Approach, always ensuring that Children’s Best Interests are promoted.

Reports to: Deputy Project Manager

Direct Reports: Education assistant 

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, develop, implement and monitor quarterly, monthly and weekly activity plans to achieve expected results related to social reintegration, specifically education. This includes planning of activities, budgets and procurement.
  • Ensure that all planned activities are implemented on time, to quality measures and within budget as per the monthly plan. Where challenges arise, ensure that these are flagged early, communicated to the Child Protection Manager and Deputy Programme Manager and addressed in a timely manner way.
  • Identify and communicate project gaps, challenges and vulnerabilities related to Education, and more broadly, to the Child Protection and Deputy Programme Managers on a timely basis and suggest possible solutions to the problems.
  • Proactively engage in the Education Working Group to become aware of Education responses across the programme implementation sites.  
  • Actively participate in education-related activities and meetings e.g. with School Principles, Ministry of Education and the State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), and seek active collaboration with other players working in the education sector.
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders including government actors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and other relevant actors
  • Share innovative ideas from student and school on education programs, in partnership with UNICEF, Ministry of Education and SUBEB.
  • Monitor progress towards the objectives and intended outputs pertaining to education using routine data, spot checks, observation, and other methodologies. 
  • Closely work with psychosocial and trauma support professionals to provide life skills and career guidance support for children transitioning from ‘education’ to ‘life’; 
  • Coordinate with Search’s procurement and administration team to ensure the timely purchases of the necessary education support materials; and distribute the education support materials to the selected children and their Schools with proper documentation; 
  • Assess needs for services of persons of concern, as related to education, and coordinate partners’ responses.
  • Prepare accurate monthly, quarterly and final narrative reports, logframes, and Sector 5Ws
  • Support Search to become a key actor in the field of reintegration of ex BH children and other vulnerable children in NE 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.

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
  • 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.