Head of Academics

About the job

The individual is responsible for leading the curriculum and education policy design for all Formal Schools’ Programmes which includes the Flagship Schools and Partnership Schools (supported by the government of various provinces). The incumbent will provide overall vision, direction, guidance and support to the academics teams for curriculum development or curation, textbook design, and program implementation.

• Enhancing relevant technical and design thinking skills of teams by enabling a culture of deep thinking, questioning, researching, collaborating, creating and inclusion.
• Minimizing the implementation loss of teaching and learning materials for students and teachers by following a conscientious approach in design of these materials and building capacity of faculty in effectively delivering these materials.
• Unique needs of our students, with respect to both academics and well-being.
• Carrying a balanced approach towards academic policy and procedures in a low-resourced, community-hired teaching faculty environment and a requirement towards minimum standards of quality education delivery.
• Collaborating with the professional development team, the assessment team and other stakeholders to ensure a coherent programme design.
• Additionally: Lead the design and development of comprehensive and progressive teaching and learning materials for students and faculty of pre-primary, primary and secondary education, ensuring alignment with TCF vision and national educational standards.
• Explore various opportunities (with respect to quality and cost) for curriculum content improvement including, but not limited to, research on national and international curriculum standards, in-house content development, and external collaborations.
• Participate in education management committees with the objective of developing policies, vision and direction for learning and training activities in schools.
• Collaborate with multiple internal and external stakeholders on a range of projects related to the development of curriculum, student learning outcomes, student and teacher well-being, faculty training, assessment and similar activities.
• Develop strategic and annual plans for the vision and direction-setting of academics within TCF, along with development of budgets, implementation and tracking.
• Enable a culture of sincerity, compassion and excellence across teams.
• Hire, develop, retain and appraise teams with particular focus on encouraging a culture of deep thinking, questioning, researching, collaborating and creating.
• Focus on developing a strong cadre of committed professionals at the Head Office, Region, Area and Schools who will be the key enablers for development and implementation of educational initiatives.
• Make continuous effort to monitor, assess and update organization on: Status of education at TCF schools through regular interface with the education team, principals, teachers and students; Measures to regularly evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of the curriculum and address design or implementation gaps in education; Impact of curriculum changes on student learning outcomes; Developments in the outside world regarding educational policies and practices.
• Collaborate with relevant departments on design, execution, implementation and evaluation of Academics Program.

Required Skills

The ideal candidate should demonstrate clarity of thought, precision in communication and excellence in implementation. Specific attributes include:

• Excellent leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills (both in English and Urdu);
• Strong design thinking and problem-solving skills with a particular focus on being detail oriented
• Understanding of approaches to learning, instruction, curricula and material design, and development of evaluation tools
• Passion to stay current on educational content and instructional practices
• Strong understanding of the educational landscape in Pakistan and familiarity with national curriculum standards
• Experience of managing complex projects and large teams through a culture of excellence and compassion
• Understanding and preferably a track record of comprehending challenges of implementation across a large system and of delivering through influence
• Well-developed commercial sense to understand implications of options available and to develop, implement and track budgets and financial plans
• Expertise in Microsoft Office.

Education

Masters’ degree (with strong research experience). Preferably in an Education or Public Policy related field

Experience

Eight years’ experience of which some experience in the education sector is strongly preferred