Project Associate/
Senior Project Associate
Early Childhood Education
July 2025 | Nagpur
Position title: Project Associate/ Senior Project Associate, ECE
Location: Nagpur
No.of Positions: 1
About Centre for Learning Resources (CLR)
Centre for Learning Resources (CLR) is one of the oldest Indian non-profit educational institutions of the Society for Educational Improvement and Innovation, based out of Pune, founded by Indias veteran educator couple John Kurrien & Zakiya Kurrien. We have been working in the domains of early childhood care and development (ECCD), Foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) & English as a second language (ESL) since 1984. We have supported various government organisations and NGOs across the country in 9 states which include Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Offshore engagements have included Indonesia & Nepal.
CLRs vision is to assist in creating a more just and equitable society through the integrated development of children from marginalised communities, such that they grow up in child-centred environments that nurture their holistic growth and learning. Our mission is to build large-scale capacities of the ICDS systems, which are charged with this responsibility, so they can deliver effectively. This includes government machinery, civil society organisations, and NGOs.
(For more information log onto http://www.clrindia.org/ )
About the ICDS & ECCE Program
CLR has run successful Programs with ICDS over the years in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Bihar & Uttar Pradesh. This program aims to develop the learning and well-being of children in the age group of 0-6 years through the ICDS setup of the state. The programs also have focused on District level and Sub-district level officers - District Project Officers (DPO s) and Child Development Project Officers (CDPO s) of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) for enhancing the quality of integrated early childhood developmental inputs available to children of 0-6 years of age. Over the years, we have worked on providing ECD, nutritional and health support to children at the ECCD centres, ensuring the quality of the ECCE activities being conducted at Anganwadi. Centres and also worked with the community to build their knowledge on providing integrated care for children. As we enter into the 40th year of our operations, our programs are now being scaled to larger number of Anganwadis across Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra to create a wider impact on more number of children.
The criticality of all-round developmental inputs (health, nutrition, psycho-social, emotional, cognitive) during the first six years of a human being s life, and the extreme difficulty of making up for any deficits later in life has been well-established. A large majority of children, especially from the less-privileged sections, depend on ICDS to receive these inputs. Anganwadi workers (AWWs), Supervisors, DPO s and CDPO s, therefore, have the potential of causing a large-scale societal transformation through the work they do by enabling a larger number of our under-privileged children to lead more fulfilling lives.
The Project Associate/ Senior Project Associate for the ICDS Leadership program will have the following roles and responsibilities:
Planning and Execution (30%)
- Plan/design the overall project strategy in conjunction with the Project Manager and Head of Programs
- Support Anganwadi workers, Supervisors and CDPOs with their development as per the project plan and through regular observations and debriefs.
Content Development and Training Support (40%)
- Develop new training content and enhance existing teaching learning materials.
- Support the video production team with the creation of learning materials, collaterals and social media engagement.
- Assist the Project Manager in proper documentation of the program (print, video and audio)
- Support the team during training sessions and conduct independent training sessions for Anganwadi workers, Supervisors, and CDPOs
External Relationships (20%)
- Liaise with Women and Child Development (WCD) department, funding partners and other CLR government partners, and
- Attend periodic meetings with DPO, CDPOs and Supervisors
- Provide regular updates about CLR s initiative and any program related developments to the government partners and funding partners.
- Work effectively with various stakeholders such as Anganwadi workers, Anganwadi helpers and Supervisors.
- Organise and document feedback from meetings with government and funding partner
Monitoring & Evaluation (10%)
- Assist in the implementation of effective data collection for pre and post intervention assessment as well as ongoing monitoring.
- Support with ongoing documentation of the project, conduct baseline, endline and other relevant assessments.
- Generate and analyse data points for your team pertinent to envisaged program outcomes.
- Document the outputs (short terms and long term) and share them with the project manager.
Requirements
Education & Experience
Necessary
- Fluency in Marathi & English
- Qualification and experience in child/human development, social work, education or related fields. Master s in education/ECCD/management is preferable
- Experience in conducting training/workshops
- Minimum work experience of 5 years in education implementation programs
- Strong written communication skills including documentation
- Comfortable working on MS PowerPoint and Google sheets / MS Excel
- Open to traveling; even if based in Pune - it will involve frequent travel to the project implementation sites across Maharashtra.
Desirable
- 2-3 years of experience in education sector, preferably working with teachers and school systems
- Fluency in Hindi
- Relevant work experience in the domain of Early Childhood Education or FLN projects.
- Experience in working with/exposure to the public education/health system
- Understanding of issues in scaling up of development interventions
Location and Compensation
Location:
Nagpur. Frequent travel across the district.
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 5-7 lakh INR per annum CTC.
Note:
CLR is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind. We do not discriminate on the basis of caste, race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other non-merit factor.
We heartily welcome new members to join us and work closely with the experienced and diverse leadership team at CLR!
Leadership Team
Chetan Bhangdia, Director
Chetan Bhangdia has extensive experience spanning more than 25 years in conceptualizing, building and delivering data and technology capabilities spanning strategy, programs, products, services, team set up and operations. He is an Engineer with a postgraduate degree in management. He takes care of select program verticals, production, research, M&E and all the organisational development functions at CLR.
Anurata Tribhuvan, Head of Production & Media and English Programs
Anurata comes with 18+ years of experience in the field of production and media communication. She has a double Masters in Communication Media for Children from SNDT University and in Psychology from Pune University. Apart from being a CLR veteran, she has worked with SFM Radio, Star Pravah TV, ICC for Kids & Natives Communications. Over the years she has produced 800+ modules in all formats of e-learning content modules and video productions.
Sufia Azmat, Head of Research and Monitoring
Dr. Sufia Azmat has eighteen years of experience around Teaching, Curriculum Development, Research, and Policy Practice. After completing a Masters in Social Work from Aligarh Muslim University, she secured a Doctorate in Social Work and Child Care Practice from Jamia Millia Islamia. She has authored 10 papers around ECD concerns and participated in several international and national conferences. She has led 2 major projects funded by ICSSR and NHRC and many minor projects. The thrust areas of her research and practice remain Early Childhood Development, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, Maternal and Child Health, disaster and resilience, and Parenting using a Rights-Based Approach.
Kishore Jagtap, Program Lead
Kishorkumar Jagtap is Program Lead at CLR, with over 14 years of experience in the education sector with a strong foundation and passion for impactful change. He specializes in organization development, stakeholder management, and strategic planning and implementation of educational programs.
Throughout his career, he has successfully led initiatives that drive institutional growth and improve program outcomes. His expertise lies in aligning educational strategies with organizational goals, ensuring sustainable and scalable development. Known for his collaborative approach, he builds strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to foster innovation and continuous improvement.
He holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering and brings a methodical, results-driven mindset to every project he leads.
