Province Coordinator-Copperbelt Province Zambia

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Position: Province Coordinator

Reports to: Senior Country Manager- Zambia

Location: Ndola, Copperbelt Province in Zambia

Deadline: 26th December 2025

TaRL Africa Initiative

TaRL Africa initiative is hosted by Empower Learning Africa, a not-for-profit organization registered and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with teams in Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Zambia and locally registered offices in Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire. TaRL Africa began as a joint venture by Pratham and J-PAL in 2019, with the goal of supporting governments and organizations across Africa to accelerate children's foundational skill learning using the evidence-based "Teaching at the Right Level" (TaRL) approach. TaRL Africa's vision is for every child across Africa to have foundational skills so that they can have a better future. Our mission is to ensure education systems effectively equip children with these foundational skills.

We support governments and organizations in over 16 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to design, deliver and scale impactful TaRL program while learning and sharing how the approach can be improved for different contexts. Together with partners, TaRL Africa has reached over five million children with TaRL programming.

About TaRL Africa’s work in Zambia

Since 2016, the Ministry of Education in Zambia, with support from TaRL Africa, VVOB, UNICEF, World Vision, and other partners, has been implementing the Catch-Up program using the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) approach. The program has expanded to nine of the country’s ten provinces, reaching over 7000 schools, and the ministry has expressed its vision to extend Catch Up to all remaining schools. Beyond geographical scale, efforts are also underway to embed Catch Up into core education systems, such as pre-service teacher training, to ensure long-term sustainability.

The Ministry of Education is currently implementing the Catch-Up program at scale in 9 out of Zambia’s 10 provinces. In 2025, TaRL Africa committed to supporting the Ministry to extend Catch Up to Copperbelt Province, the only remaining province yet to begin scale-up. This decision aligns with the Ministry’s strategy and goal of achieving full national scale-up of Catch-Up by 2026.

TaRL Africa will support the Ministry to initiate the scale-up process in Copperbelt through one district in 2026, with the expectation that the Ministry will build on this foundation and continue the expansion to meet its 2026 scale-up target.

About the role

TaRL Africa has been a long-time partner to the Ministry of Education in Zambia, alongside UNICEF and VVOB, supporting the government-led Catch-Up program, which now reaches the majority of primary schools nationwide. As we scale up the program to the last remaining province, we are recruiting a Province Coordinator - Copperbelt Province to lead in coordinating the scale up activities in the province.

The work in Copperbelt is focused on integrating Catch Up into the education system, ensuring the approach is led by the Ministry and sustained once partner support ends. Rather than building a parallel project structure, the Province Coordinator will help embed Catch Up into existing planning, budgeting, training, supervision, and data systems.

The Province Coordinator will coordinate TaRL Africa’s support to foundational learning programming in the province, ensuring high-quality program delivery and technical assistance for the implementation of Catch Up. The role will also focus on cultivating and managing relationships with the Ministry of Education at provincial and district levels, as well as with civil society partners, supporting a collective effort to strengthen foundational learning in Zambia.

As TaRL Africa initiates the Catch-Up scale-up in Copperbelt Province, the Province Coordinator will also coordinate the operational, financial, and compliance systems that enable effective, government-led implementation. This role will involve working closely with partners in the Copperbelt Provincial Education Office and in districts across the province.

Responsibilities

1. Support integration and government-led implementation of Catch-Up (40%)

• Support the Ministry to coordinate the scale up of Catch-Up implementation across districts in Copperbelt Province, working closely with officials from both the provincial and the district education offices.
• Support program design, innovation, and learning in close collaboration with the government partners, the TaRL Africa Country Manager and central TaRL Africa teams.
• Support the Ministry to coordinate the initial scale up of Catch Up in Luanshya district in 2026, from design workshop, material creation, training events, and practice classes to assessments and classroom implementation.
• Encourage program fidelity by helping the Ministry to coordinate the different implementation components such as monitoring and mentoring, working closely with officials at province and district level.
• Support the Ministry to ensure that program delivery meets quality standards and that implementation challenges are proactively identified and addressed.
• Effectively engage and work with government counterparts and partners from the province and districts to build long-term capacity within the system.

1. Understand and navigate the provincial education system and stakeholders (30%)

• Build and maintain an understanding of how the education system works at province and district level, and how this links to the national-level system. Map and analyze key stakeholders and incentive structures influencing the primary education system and foundational learning.
• Build relationships with provincial officials, Ministry partners, traditional leaders, elected representatives, unions and other influential stakeholders in the system.
• Work closely with the Ministry, TaRL Africa staff and other partners to consider how Catch Up fits with the other work in the province to improve foundational literacy and numeracy. Support work by partners and the Ministry of Education at national, province and district level to align initiatives into an integrated foundational learning approach or strategy.
• Stay informed about developments in the education sector and provide regular updates to TaRL Africa staff. Support TaRL Africa to engage at an early stage to influence relevant policy changes.
• Participate in province-level sector coordinating committees, attend local events and conferences, and learn about relevant programs and organizations. Policy areas of interest will include but are not limited to early grade programs , the rollout of the new curriculum, and the development of the Education Management Information System (EMIS).

1. Coordinate operations and finance to enable government-led implementation (20%)

• In consultation with the Country Manager, support the coordination of operations and finance tasks that influence program implementation in the province.
• Lead the coordination of budgeting, planning, and financial management for the provincial scale-up with guidance and support from the Country Manager.

1. Learning, documentation and other duties (10%)

• Keep abreast of evolving government education policies and initiatives in Copperbelt Province.
• Support other tasks as assigned by the line manager(s).

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Programs Management, International Development, Public Policy, Education, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in coordinating and managing foundational learning programs , ideally within Copperbelt Province or Zambia at large.
• Familiarity with the foundational learning landscape in Zambia is strongly preferred.
• Experience working with the Zambian Ministry of Education is strongly preferred.
  
  

Skills and Competencies

• Good adaptability to a changing work environment.
• Exceptional relationship-building and stakeholder management skills,
• Strategic thinker with the ability to balance long-term institutionalization goals with immediate program delivery needs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively.
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with adaptability in dynamic contexts.
• Ability to embody TaRL Africa’s organizational culture: team spirit, and dedication to the improvement of children’s education.

TaRL Africa Values

1. We place children's learning first.
2. We are always learning, improving, and innovating.
3. We are locally rooted for high-quality delivery and sustainable impact.
4. We are kind, respectful and collaborative.
5. We are proactive, committed to integrity and doing our best each day.

This job description covers the main tasks and conveys the spirit of the sort of tasks that are anticipated proactively from staff. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary according to organizational needs.

TaRL Africa provides a nationally peer-benchmarked compensation package aligned with organizational salary scales, taking into account both qualifications and professional experience.

TaRL Africa is an equal-opportunity employer committed to having a diverse workforce