Overview
The Regional Hub Lead(s) will lead the functioning of the Southeast Asia Hub for School Leadership. This role will drive a regional landscape analysis, facilitate collaboration, and shape policy efforts to strengthen school leadership across Southeast Asia. The opening is for a consultant or a consortium of consultants with expertise in education and school leadership policy, experience working in or with government offices, and the ability to conduct interviews and seminars for public sector audiences.
Why Focus on School Leadership
The Southeast Asia (SEA) region faces significant challenges in education due to the impact of COVID-19. School closures affected over 152 million children across the region. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) April 2021 report, the learning disruptions have led to an estimated $147 billion in lifetime earning losses—$197 billion under more pessimistic scenarios. The losses in Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS) were stark: SEA saw a 0.35 LAYS reduction, 20% higher than the Developing Asia average of 0.29.
Investing in school leadership offers a promising pathway to improving education quality in LMICs. The 2024/5 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report highlights how effective school leadership significantly impacts student learning, teacher practices, and overall school performance. Key findings include:
- Instructional leadership improves teaching quality in 32 countries.
- Effective school management correlates positively with student learning outcomes in 65 countries.
- Despite this, school leaders are under-supported:
- Over 70% of countries expect school leaders to facilitate staff professional development, yet many leaders themselves receive no such training.
- Around 30% of countries mandate induction and training for new school leaders.
- Only 49% of countries have national professional standards for school leaders.
- Around 63% of countries use competitive recruitment processes for school leaders.
- In 14 LMICs, school leaders spend 68% of their time on administrative tasks, limiting their focus on instructional leadership.
These findings underscore the critical need to invest in and support school leadership as a lever for improving education systems across the SEA region.
The Southeast Asia Hub for School Leadership
Despite school leadership’s critical importance, stakeholders lack dedicated spaces for collaboration and shared learning. This fragmentation limits understanding of existing work, evidence generation, scaling of successful initiatives, and policy advancement. To address this, Global School Leaders (GSL), an international non-profit organization committed to mobilizing investment and participation in school leadership development, and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Secretariat, the executive arm for regional cooperation in education, science, and culture, are jointly establishing the Southeast Asia (SEA) Hub for School Leadership.
This Hub aims to investigate the educational leadership landscape in the SEAMEO countries in Southeast Asia, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. In its inception year, the Hub will conduct a landscape analysis, bring together educational stakeholders to define a regional approach to school leadership, and map the next phase of the Hub.
First Year Objectives
The inaugural year of the SEA Hub for School Leadership will focus on the following key objectives:
- Conducting a landscape analysis of regional school leadership policies and implementation
- Organizing a co-creation workshop with government officials and experts to define the regional agenda
- Consulting the wider ecosystem on the workshop plan and publishing action recommendations
- Publishing findings from the landscape analysis and consultations
- Hosting a Technical Working Group on school leadership in early childhood education
In this role, you will
The Regional Hub Lead(s) will report to GSL and will drive all Hub-related activities. The role will include, but not be limited to:
Strategize the vision of the Hub (40%)
- Develop an engagement strategy by consulting with the co-convenors to onboard all the Hub participants, and keep the co-convenors apprised of the workings of the Hub by sharing progress reports.
- Conduct in-depth interviews with stakeholders, engage with the various ministries of education, funders, researchers, and CSOs.
- Organize and execute the in-person workshops and events, including for the technical working groups.
- Publish reports on the landscape analysis, the co-creation workshop, and the overall functioning, and feasibility of the Hub.
Manage the Hub’s ongoing activities (30%)
- Manage the landscape analysis process to map all the current educational policies and implementations for all participating countries, and create a repository of the key policies and interventions.
- Map strengths from within the network, and connect stakeholders to help and support each other.
- Help the Hub participants find answers and solutions to their school leadership challenges and needs.
- Constantly engage with the Hub’s members to understand their focus areas and to engage with them about school leadership.
Engage the wider educational ecosystem (15%)
- Hold regular consultations with the educational ecosystem players who are not directly involved in the Hub and technical working groups.
- Share the learnings and takeaways from the consultations with the convenors, and course-correct the direction of the Hub and technical working groups.
Contribute to the sustained functioning of the Hub (15%)
- Help with the ongoing fundraising efforts for the Hub.
- Explore and talk to potential supporters of the Hub and technical working groups.
- Contribute to writing grant proposals for the Hub’s sustainability.
Candidate Qualifications
Required Qualifications
(we will use these in our screening process; if you do not meet each of these, you will be denied)
- At least 10 years of experience working in leadership positions in regional/ national governments in the SEA region, OR working in leadership positions within organizations that work extensively with governments in the SEA region.
- Experience in taking a project from ideation to implementation.
- Proven success in leading big projects with multiple stakeholders from different sectors, who often have competing interests and priorities.
- Experience in leading research work and researchers to efficiently gather information on policies and program implementations, and to track them in an easy-to-use manner.
- Fluency in written and spoken English.
- Living in Southeast Asia.
Preferred Qualifications
(these will not be used for screening purposes; if you feel you have some but not all of these, you are still encouraged to apply)
- Project management experience, with a proven ability to manage multiple deadlines while maintaining high-quality standards.
- Strong public speaking and communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex ideas to different audiences.
- Experience in partnership development, including experience in major donor cultivation, stewardship, and retention.
- Demonstrates a generalist mindset with the ability to adapt quickly, learn new skills, and willingly contribute to tasks outside of primary responsibilities as the Hub’s needs arise.
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Understanding of the Global South development sector.
Daily Work
- Contract duration: The pilot year for the Hub will run from June 2025 to May 2026.
- Workload: We anticipate that the workload for this role will be around 20 hours per week. The workload may be less in some weeks, and more in others (especially when conducting in-person events and visits). Specific weekly workload and time commitments will be determined based on the individual candidate’s skills and experience.
- Materials: The candidate(s) must have internet access and access to a computer. These will not be provided for you.
- Schedule flexibility: We are a fully remote organization, and apart from meetings, you can organize your work in a way that suits you best, with lots of flexibility in when and where you work. Please note that in this role, you will be working with many external stakeholders and GSL team members, so you will need flexibility in your schedule to accommodate these meetings and might need to have meetings both during and outside of regular business hours.
Work Location and Remuneration
The candidate(s) can be based in any country in Southeast Asia, with a strong preference for candidates based in Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, or Manila. The candidate(s) must have work authorization in their place of residence, as GSL is not able to sponsor employment visas. The candidate must have the ability to travel internationally as well as within the country.
The full payment for the year’s engagement is $30,000 to $40,000 USD, and will be paid in the local currency where the candidate is based — for example, 134,070 to 178,760 MYR, 505,380,000 to 673,840,000 IDR, or 1,720,400 to 2,293,900 PHP. GSL will cover the travel cost for the lead(s) above and beyond the payment mentioned above.
Final compensation and workload will be determined based on a holistic assessment of the candidates’ profile, encompassing experience, skills, availability, and the project’s specific requirements. Adjustments may be made to balance varying skill levels or availability. We aim to establish a balanced arrangement that reflects your specific qualifications and the value you bring to the project.
Commitment to Diversity
GSL is an equal-opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive work environment for all employees – across nationalities, races, ethnicity, religions, economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, disabilities, languages, ages, genders, and prior experiences. In our hiring, we seek those with an inclusive mindset and who notice and correct inequities when they arise.
Child Safeguarding
GSL is committed to safeguarding children. Background checks may be conducted as part of the hiring process. All team members are asked to agree to a safeguarding policy.
How to Apply:
