Background
Leadership For Skilled Education Foundation (branded asLeadership for Equity, LFE)
is a non-profit organisation based in Pune, Maharashtra, working to strengthen India s public education system so that every child learns and thrives. We envision public education systems that refuse to let children down. LFE partners with state and district governments across multiple states including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana to improve teaching practices and build sustained academic support structures within the public system. Our work is anchored in the belief that public education systems are the gatekeepers of social equity, and strengthening them is essential to ensuring that every child has access to strong foundational and future-ready learning.
Approach
LFE s systems-change approach focuses on improving classroom practice and enabling government ownership through three core levers:
- Co-creating high-quality curricular resources and building teacher capacity
- Developing academic leadership to coach and mentor teachers
- Providing data-driven advisory support and policy implementation guidance
Our model empowers teachers as instructional leaders and embeds long-term support through government-run mentor cadres, continuous classroom observation cycles, and in-system academic structures. Technology plays a critical role, including an in-house Classroom Observation App for real-time monitoring and a WhatsApp-based teacher support chatbot for contextual resource delivery.
The approach is iterative and context-responsive, grounded in classroom realities and tailored to state and district needs. Implementation varies across geographies whether working directly with teachers or through government-appointed mentors ensuring relevance and feasibility within existing structures. A continuous feedback loop of training, observation, and coaching moves beyond one-time interventions toward sustained practice change. All programs are co-designed and co-implemented with government partners to ensure scale, sustainability, and systemic ownership, ultimately leading to improved student learning outcomes in foundational and future literacy.
About Centre For Excellence in Teacher Education, TISS
Established as CEIAR in 2015, the CETE has been engaging with and promoting innovation in school curriculum, teacher education, and higher education curriculum and pedagogy. The Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE) will work towards revitalising the education sector through research, academic programs, teaching, field action, policy advocacy, partnerships, and collaborations. Their goal is to improve the learning outcomes of children across schools in India by equipping teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes.
CETE envisages its role as a "Catalyst for Transformation in Teacher Education" through multiple activities. The Centre continues to build on its contemporary academic programs to provide relevant skills and perspectives to new entrants, practising teachers, and professionals. It continues to foster deeper, more meaningful, and impact-oriented engagements with various stakeholders in the sector, incubating and promoting the innovative use of new technologies and media to enhance the relevance, quality, and standards of education.
About Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab
LFE, in partnership with CETE and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has established Sadhana Teacher Excellence Lab in Pune to revitalise the pre-service education space. The center aims to offer short and medium-term programs to help improve upon the skills and academic competencies of youth aspiring to enter the teaching field. To this end, the Center will also partner with schools and educational institutions to facilitate the placement of successful course participants as teachers in those institutions.
The Center will undertake the following activities:
- Run reflective and immersive practice-oriented certificate programs for youth with teaching degrees, but unable to secure employment as a teacher.
- Run online and in-person in-service certificate programs to strengthen teachers pedagogical and subject competencies.
- Function as a resource center for teachers to learn and experiment in the spirit of continuous learning and development.
The scope of work for the project will be as follows:
- Design and execute a fellowship for aspiring teachers rooted in immersive and reflective practice.
- Conduct classes, field internships, and reflection sessions with course participants to enable successful mastery of learning competencies.
- Partner with schools and educational institutions to facilitate placement for the successfully certified course participants.
- Conduct ongoing monitoring and evaluation to assess project progress and outcomes.
The Project Associate, Teacher Excellence Center, will work with the Operations Lead, LFE, to ensure project goals are achieved. This is an aspirational position to learn and contribute to the pre-service teacher professional development sector, working with reputed sector leaders in the field of teacher education.
The responsibilities are as follows:
- Identify, establish, and maintain partnerships with institutes, communities and other organisations towards sourcing interested participants for the Fellowship Program.
- Identify, establish, and maintain partnerships with schools to provide internships for the participants under the fellowship program.
- Design PPTs and branding materials for marketing and promotion of the Fellowship program on Canva.
- Design and conduct orientation sessions towards sourcing of participants for the fellowship program.
- Support in creating project operational plans, and monitoring mechanisms (such as pre- and post-tests, course assignments, attendance records, fellow onboarding documents etc.)
- Contribute to the making of project reports as required, and support the managers and implementation coordinators as needed to be accountable for the outcomes of the projects across the different streams of deliverables as prescribed in the Project scope.
- Conduct classroom observations or user interviews as necessary to gain feedback on the created content and tweak it as necessary
- Participate in all the organisational team spaces and structures.
Requirements
Education & Experience
- Degree in education/teacher development or related social science/management discipline. Master s degree preferred
- 2-3 Years of experience implementing teacher training programs or working in school administration or curriculum development
- Proven experience in content design and teacher training, and program operations
- Experience working in Maharashtra would be preferable
Important
: Given the nature of the project, please only if you qualify based on the above requirements
Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities
- Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, Marathi, and Hindi.
- Excellent facilitation skills to lead reflection and teaching in small groups.
- Being able to
take initiative and work in an autonomous
, semi-structured environment -
Belief in the potential of the public sector and that government systems
can and will change towards overcoming systemic inequities and ensuring improved outcomes for all citizens - Working knowledge of policy and programs in Teacher Education in India preferred
- Evidence-based teaching-learning techniques aligned to contemporary education policy guidelines and frameworks
- Data Maintenance and understanding.
- Excellent in editing tools like Canva.
- A basic understanding of
social equity, development discourse, and education policy
in India - Adaptability to changing responsibilities and resourcefulness to respond to them
- High openness to learning and upskilling oneself on the job
- Strong ability to create outstanding presentations, work with Microsoft Excel & Google Suite
- Patience and resilience to stick it out in the face of setbacks and uncertainties
Location and Compensation
Location
: Pune, Maharashtra.
Compensation
: Apart from being a part of a young and dynamic learning team, the individual will receive a healthy compensation at par with the non-profit sector benchmark for this position, commensurate with the individual s prior experience and qualifications. The current compensation band offered, based on fit and experience, is 4.5 - 6.5 lakh INR per annum CTC.
Leadership For Equity is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.
