Chemonics Soma Umenye LLC,Research Assistant/Data Collector Jobs in Rwanda

Project: Rwanda Soma
Umenye

Project
Summary

Soma
Umenye is a five-year USAID-funded activity that aims to improve reading
outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children in public and
government-aided schools in Rwanda. Covering all 30 districts of Rwanda and
working in close collaboration with the Rwanda Education Boad (REB) and the
Rwandan Ministry of Education (MINEDUC),

Soma Umenye will contribute to
Rwanda’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) and the Government of Rwanda’s
national development priority of ensuring that Rwandan primary-grade students
acquire the fundamental competency of literacy so that they can succeed in
future schooling and, later, in the modern workplace.

Project
goals

Soma
Umenye aims to achieve the following two goals.

To
improve reading outcomes in Kinyarwanda for at least 1 million children
(unique direct beneficiaries) in public and government-aided schools in
Rwanda by the end of P3; and
To
ensure that at least 70 percent of P1-P3 students are able to read
grade-level text with fluency and comprehension.

To
achieve the above goals, it requires close collaboration with all education
stakeholders under the technical leadership of MINEDUC and REB.

Purpose
of Assignment

As
Soma Umenye will be an evidence-based Kinyarwanda literacy intervention, we
will be conducting research and evaluation activities that will inform and
guide the implementation and policy reforms related to literacy education in
Rwandan primary schools. These research and evaluation activities will require
ad hoc labor-intensive data collection. To this end, Soma Umenye is recruiting
casual research assistants or data collectors to support the monitoring,
evaluation and learning staff in data collection and other relevant assignments
as described below.

Principal
Duties and Responsibilities

1) Training
and Pilot Activities

Complete
training organized for all research assistants/data collectors;
Review
data collection instruments and provide feedback during the training;
Contribute
to the refinement of Kinyarwanda data collection instruments;
Identify
possible areas for improvement of the tools based on their clarity;
Participate
in and complete data collection piloting activities.

2) Field
Data Collection Activities

Conduct
and complete the required number of daily interviews and questionnaires
with the sampled target groups (i.e. teachers, teacher training college
tutors, parents and/or students) using tablets and other electronic
devices;
Assist
in the selection of subsamples per procedures pre-established by lead
researchers or evaluators;
Provide
insights into the findings from field research notes, using substantial
local knowledge (cultural, educational, etc.).

3) Data
Transcription and Cleaning Activities

Transcribe
the pre-agreed daily numbers of audio data from tablets or audio-recorders
into Microsoft Word/Excel;
Conduct
data quality checks to spot errors from spreadsheets and suggest
corrections;
Draft
daily or weekly reports on progress, including the number of interviews
transcribed;
Provide
a brief report on the overall activity, complete with lessons learned and
recommendations for future data collection and cleaning activities.

Job
Qualifications

Fluency
in written and spoken Kinyarwanda and English required, proficiency in
French a plus;
University
degree in language education or applied linguistics strongly preferred;
Prior
experience working as a primary-school teacher strongly preferred;
Experience
with educational research and/or as a data collector in the education
sector required;
Willingness
to spend extensive periods of time in remote areas of Rwanda required;
In-depth
understanding of the education environment in Rwanda required;
Prior
experience using tablets or other electronic data collection devices
required;
Punctuality,
intellectual curiosity, and willingness to work under pressure to meet
deadlines required.