INOVASI 3 - Character Education Specialist

Background

Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values. 

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

INOVASI Phase 3 is implemented in 25 districts and cities across Indonesia, in the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, East Java, West Java, and Maluku. The program also works in Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN).

The Program is implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Purpose of the Position
MoECRT’s recent focus on building Eight National Characters through strengthening Seven Habits of Great Indonesian Children, alongside the Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta (KBC) under the Ministry of Religious Affairs, emphasizes the importance of embedding character values into education. These approaches foster students’ spiritual, emotional, social, ecological, and intellectual growth, while also advancing inclusive values, gender equality, disability inclusion, and environmental responsibility—aligning closely with broader GEDSI and climate change priorities.

The Character Education Specialist will provide technical leadership, advice, and support to integrate character education within INOVASI . The Specialist will support the design, piloting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of character education approaches, particularly aligned with the Kurikulum Berbasis Cinta and whole-school development frameworks. This position plays a critical role in bridging national policy, subnational implementation, and school-level practice, ensuring that character education becomes a living practice across the school community.

Working with children
Is this position likely to come into contact with children?                     ☒ Yes                          ☐ No

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the direction of the School Ecosystem and Quality Manager, the Character Education Specialist will:

Lead the development and refinement of INOVASI’s character education strategy, aligning with the Guiding Notes and other INOVASI strategy documents and and program logic.Provide technical input to integrate character education into INOVASI work particularly at the district and school level using whole-school development model.Support subnational teams, school leaders, teachers, supervisors, and communities to understand, apply, and model effective character education approaches through trainings, workshops and other waysFacilitate collaboration with relevant stakeholders including TTIs and ministries’ technical units to ensure alignment and institutional capacity building.Support schools and districts in adopting whole-school approaches where character values are embedded in leadership, teaching, school culture, parental engagement, and community partnerships.Provide technical support to national counterparts in Kemenag and MoECRT related to character education policy development, curriculum design, teacher development frameworks, and monitoring systems.Participate and contribute in national and global working groups, workshops, and technical discussionsto inform and support government policy processes.Work closely with the Performance and Learning team to develop appropriate indicators, tools, and approaches to measure character education implementation and outcomes.Ensure that character education interventions are inclusive, gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and address ecological responsibility as integral parts of character formation.Maintain strong communication and coordination with national and subnational teams to promote cross-learning and coherent program delivery.Contribute to routine reporting, six-monthly progress reports, and ad hoc reporting to DFAT and Government of Indonesia counterparts.Other tasks as may reasonably be required by the School Ecosystem and Quality Improvement Manager.

Qualifications and Experience

A degree in education, psychology, social work, social sciences, public policy, or related fields.Significant experience in education development programs with a focus on character education, social emotional support, counselling, school leadership, and/or whole-school development.Experience working with Indonesian education institutions including MoE, Kemenag, LPTKs, district governments, school supervisors, school principals, teachers, and parent communities.Demonstrated facilitation skills, including reflective practice and adult learning methodologies.Ability to work collaboratively in complex, multi-stakeholder environments and navigate policy-to-practice challenges.Strong problem-solving skills, interpersonal and communication skills, positive attitude, and a proactive approach.Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and good working proficiency in English.

INOVASI encourages applications from individuals of all backgrounds, including persons with disabilities, and others from underrepresented groups.

Application closes 30 July at 23:59, Jakarta Time

INOVASI has zero tolerance for child abuse and exploitation. All successful candidates will be required to adhere to our Child Protection Policy and will be subject to background checks as a condition of employment.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Women are encouraged to apply