South Sudan (Republic of): Education adviser

South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 and is looking ahead to its future. Since VSO started operating in South Sudan in 2011, volunteer placements are focused on health, basic education and good governance to improve basic services through the building of civil society. The initial focus for the education programme is providing support for capacity building at different levels including systems development and skills enhancement with the aim of improving the quality of basic education. The Education adviser seeks to enhance the capacity of the Torit County Education Office (CEO) through staff development and improvements in practice.

What does the role involve?

You'll help to enhance the capacity of the Torit County Education Office (CEO). You'll do this by:

•working as a counterpart with the County Education Office (CEO) Director, the Payam Education Office (PEO ) administrator and the County Education Centre (CEC) Administrator to enhance their personal professional knowledge and skills and, through this, their professional capacity, capability and achievements;

•assisting the review and evaluation of work practices in the County Education Office and where appropriate introduce improved working practices;

•supporting the Director in developing staff to improve their knowledge, skills (including ICT skills) and performance of their staff;

•working with the County Education Centre (CEC) Administrator to enhance the teaching skills of CEC tutors;

•working with the Director and staff to improve the co-ordination of their work;

•working with the CEO Director, directors and staff in the Eastern Equatoria State Ministry of Education (EESMOE) to improve liaison and the co-ordination of inspection/supervision and teacher professional development.

Skills, qualification and experience required

You’ll have a recognised teaching qualification at degree standard, plus experience as a primary school teacher. You’ll have significant experience in a leadership/management role in education, with knowledge of basic school inspection and in-service teacher training. Desirable would be additional experience in Special Needs, HIV/AIDS or Gender-related work and professional experience in a developing country. You’ll have good professional understanding of the knowledge and skills required by a primary school teacher and head teachers, well developed teacher training skills and excellent communication abilities. You’ll be aware of needs of a new nation in a post conflict phase of development, willing to work with modest resources and flexible and adaptable, able to take initiative.

And the rest...

You’ll be based at Torit County Education Office. Torit has useful local facilities such as banks, a sizeable thriving market and some good transport links between Torit and the capital, Juba. You’ll have simple accommodation, usually off-campus. The working language is English but some of the local population will speak Arabic and local languages. VSO will arrange language training. We’ll ask you to commit to 24 months to make a sustainable contribution to our development goals. In return, we’ll provide you with extensive training before your placement, and our financial package includes a local living allowance, return flights and accommodation. When you return to your home country, we'll help you to resettle and many of our returned volunteers stay involved with us long after their placement ends.

To apply for this role please visit our website and select 'register now' to complete the registration and application form on the relevant website to your location.

Please quote the following reference on your application form: SS0022/0002/0001