Director of Education

Director of Education

AKDN – Aga Khan Development Network

Switzerland

The position

The Director of Education is both a forward thinking and pragmatic leader. With a network of schools and programmes operating in diverse and changing societies and as the principal education leader, s/he shapes the future of AKS and lifts it to its next level of development.

S/he will lead the Education Department at AKS and report to the General Manager. As a member of the Head Office s/he will work closely with Head Office teams and education professionals in countries within AKS and AKDN agencies, such as the Aga Khan University and the University of Central Asia. S/he will also collaborate with those in AKDN agencies with remits that include government schools and programmes for young people, such as the Aga Khan Foundation and other AKDN and external agencies whose expertise can be brought to enrich our schools, teachers and students, such as the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Aga Khan Health Services.

S/he will be responsible for the review, development and implementation of the education strategy to drive ambitious systems of change for the continuum of pre-K-12 education (including early childhood development). S/he will also be directly involved in school improvement work and capacity building. Benefiting from the analysis and use of performance data, along with leveraging AKDN global partnerships, s/he will spearhead the improvements in the quality of education for a diverse schools’ and curriculum portfolio, building relevant and context-specific programmes towards population and geographies.

Furthermore, and to shape the future of education, s/he will lead the team overseeing the education technology integration strategy, as well as the environmental education initiative. This will transform learning and thinking in our schools and give students access to formal schooling and learning opportunities they may not be able to access because of political, social and/or economic circumstances. S/he will also leverage the AKS network to provide high-quality education to the least affording and least advantaged.

Reporting to: General Manager, Aga Khan Schools

Supervising: Educational leaders in the Head Office team.

The requirements

Responsibilities:

• To develop an education strategy and development plan to raise educational standards and outcomes for students.
• To ensure the vision and mission for AKS is implemented.
• To ensure the schooling offered (for international, national and state curricula schools) is fit-for-purpose and of sufficient quality to serve the needs of students and their potential career pathways.
• To lead an education technology strategy that raises standards of achievement, gives access to learning for all students and connects the least well-resourced with the most well-resourced across the network.
• To use international best practices in education to ensure our international curriculum schooling is fit-for-purpose and competitive in this market sector.
• To put in place coordinated systems of support to protect children and young people, supporting their health, safety and wellness.
• To ensure systems for careers education and university guidance are in place such that all students can aspire to careers and higher education, where appropriate, that matches their needs and abilities, and are affordable.
• To raise the quality of education and assure quality, using a quality assurance framework, including KPIs that are systemic, and to implement an improvement strategy to be based on the use of qualitative and quantitative data.
• To make sure a teacher-development strategy is in place that addresses issues of the quality of supply, retention of the best performers and which offers a career ladder for staff.
• To use educational data to identify trends in performance, and to intervene sufficiently early to raise standards where necessary, for example in a curriculum area or in a phase of schooling.
• To implement a coordinated strategy for early childhood development to give quality access.
• To lead the team of education specialists in a consultative and collaborative manner to ensure the resources in Head Office and the field are targeted to the educational needs and priorities of the students we serve.
• To give educational advice credibly.

Qualifications & Attribute:

• Master or PhD in Education or related field.
• A minimum of 8 years of substantial experience working in the field of education in leadership positions in international settings, including in the global south.
• Forward thinking with pragmatic leadership.
• Align and empathise with AKDN values and approach to development, demonstrated through working in schools’ education in the global south.
• Intercultural understanding and sensitivity to work with and bring the best from those in diverse contexts.
• Understanding of schools and school systems drawn from experience in diverse contexts.
• Proven school leadership ability to transform the quality of education for the better.
• Ability to oversee organisational projects with large scope/impact and with institutional change implications.
• Educational leadership expertise, proven and sustained in contexts beyond home country, including in the global south.
• Ability to prioritise critical education outcomes in resource-challenged environments.
• Leadership of teams and to bring the best from others.
• Able to collaborate both internally with AKDN, and externally, in multiple ways to benefit the organization.
• Able to write in English coherently, concisely and in ways fitting different audiences to help others understand nuanced ideas and analysis in education.
• Able to use qualitative and quantitative data to support proposals and ideas.
• Able to use technology appropriately to make work effective and efficient.

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