Akshara Foundation to offer two short-term positions

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The Akshara Foundation, a non-profit education organization based in Bangalore, India, is offering short-term positions for recent graduates with expertise in education. The Akshara Foundation is the Karnataka state constituent of Pratham, the India-wide educational network, and works in public-private partnership with the Government of Karnataka through the Karnataka Learning Partnership. Akshara has regularly worked with close to 200,000 children in 1410 schools and around 30,0000 children in 1600 pre-schools in the city of Bangalore and is expanding across the state – we have worked with close to 400 schools in North Karnataka as well.

Closely linked to the Akshara Foundation is Pratham Books, a publishing house that produces children’s books in

English and up to ten other Indian languages. Pratham Books have reached 12 million children since inception.

Both organizations offer unique opportunities to graduates, with vast scope for research and impact on the government school system. Akshara Foundation positions will involve time in the field in order to understand local context and align work with ground realities and a minimum commitment of 9 to 12 months is required.

Research Analyst

The Akshara Foundation has developed a powerful data-collection network, through which it collects census data on thousands of children in government schools each year. Analytics of data relevant to Akshara programmes are publicly accessible through an interactive map on the Karnataka Learning Partnership website. As we expand across the state, the analyst would be responsible for looking in-depth for trends in Akshara’s data and placing findings in the context of international research and practice. S/he would ideally draw lessons from the findings that could be applied to Akshara’s future programming, as well as advocacy initiatives.

Advocacy Specialist

The Akshara Foundation aims ultimately to inspire systemic change, not just to operate short-term programs in government schools. To this end, Akshara plans to use data from its own programs, action research, and international examples of theory and practice to advocate for better quality public education within the state of Karnataka.

The specialist would be responsible for researching, developing, and presenting advocacy positions on educational quality in an accessible format. Ideal advocacy positions would take into account the positions of international organizations such as UNESCO, draw from educational theory, and cite compelling action research, but also address the specific context of Karnataka?s educational policy.