Senior Regional Manager, Schools at Kwara State Government

Schools Group

Schools ensure efficient management through an organizational structure that divides schools into regions within a territory, and oversight of a region to one Regional Manager. Each Regional Manager is responsible for the management and professional development of Supervisors. A Supervisor is responsible for the support and professional development of a group of schools; Supervisors report to a Regional Manager who in turn is responsible for the success of that school region or territory. The Senior Regional Manager oversees all Regional Managers.

Supervisors are in schools each day, providing ongoing mentorship, feedback, and ongoing group and personal training. They also engage with all stakeholders of the schools under their care, including government officials, parents, and community groups as may be required. Their role is the nexus of all that we do, ensuring the implementation and results of our overall programming, integrating school management, leadership & development of school staff, instructional design, and technology. Using big data that provides visibility into everyday teaching practices and school management, they work with school staff to improve performance – with the goal of pupil performance and character development in mind – and provide feedback on core programming to our design teams.

In your role, you will lead your team of Regional Managers in relentlessly pursuing excellence through their Supervisors, and achieving their learning, operational, and school strength outcomes. You will provide oversight and mentoring to Regional Managers so that they can succeed in their oversight and mentoring for Supervisors. You will hold each Regional Manager accountable for meeting their targets while ensuring that they have the management skills to support the achievement of their Supervisors and school goals. You will also use big data to provide targeted feedback, and coaching to individuals on your team. Their success is your success.

This team is laser-focused on outcomes, inherently collaborative in nature, loves fostering leadership in others, is unwaveringly committed to ensuring a quality education for our pupils, and is excited about creating incredible learning interventions that drive positive behavior and mindset change in adults. You will flourish on this team if you are: a team player, hyper-focused on results, flexible in a dynamic environment, and have fun while working hard.

This role reports to the Schools Director. 

What you will do

• Be responsible for the success of schools and all Regional Managers, including all aspects of learning outcomes, school management, and community and parent engagement.
• Ensure each Regional Manager delivers on their oversight of Supervisors and individual KPIs. Their schools should deliver the promise of learning and holistic development for children and have a strong and high-performing cohort of teachers.
• Provide Regional Managers with day-to-day oversight, guidance, and coaching. This includes facilitating regular touchpoints with Regional Managers, reading and responding to reports submitted by the Regional Managers, and providing feedback on their work. 
• Provide Regional Managers with all training necessary for their success, including their onboarding, professional development, and “train the trainer” sessions for content that Regional Managers need to deliver to their Supervisors.
• Use data from multiple sources, including your own field visits, quality assurance audits, and big data on school staff behavior, and lead Regional Managers to improve their oversight, mentoring, and professional development for Supervisors.
• Coach Regional Managers in their use of data to provide data-driven oversight and guidance for Supervisors, and creation of Supervisor route plans.
• Be in schools 20% of the time, observing Supervisors and providing feedback to Regional Managers on ways the Regional Manager can further support the Supervisor on coaching the school leader and/or teachers.
• When observing or holding meetings, use rubrics or other documents to support structured observation and reporting.
• Support specific school events, including collaborating on programming for such events as school opening celebrations, parent-teacher conferences, and school closing celebrations, as well as community showcases and participation in co-curricular competitions.
• Through Regional Managers, ensure school staff and students are prepared to sit in government-proctored exams, as they may occur on a termly/semester basis, and with particular attention to national examinations.
• Through Regional Managers, ensure school strength and support enrollment efforts.
• Through Regional Managers, ensure local regulatory processes are followed, including environmental & social standards, as well as national regulations.
• Through Regional Managers, ensure that leadership & development sessions are delivered to schools during the course of the school year, and during induction training for new staff. Supervisors should use the materials and programming developed by the Leadership & Development team.
• Work with the Leadership & Development team and L&D Manager to provide, and facilitate ongoing professional development for Supervisors through Regional Managers
• Through Regional Managers, support schools through the transition of staff, including school leaders and teachers.
• Supervise budget and optimization, prevent fraud and ensure financial discipline among Regional Managers.
• Guide Regional Managers in assigning and overseeing a clear travel plan and workflow for each Supervisor.
• Other duties as assigned

What you should have

• Bachelor's degree with superior academic performance.
• Proven management and leadership experience, leading teams of people to accomplish an objective
• Proven experience managing field-based teams
• Experience in mentorship and coaching of youth and adults
• Teaching experience a plus
• Belief in data-driven decision making
• Relentless focus on achievement for yourself and others
• Bias towards action
• Flexible and loves to work in a dynamic environment
• Collaborative leader with strong relationship-building skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong communication skills
• Undergraduate degree (or it's equivalent) or Master’s degre

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, KwaraLEARN works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.