Background
Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supportingeducation quality improvements for the past two decades,including through the INOVASI program (Phase ; Phase 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 builds upon the existing program's approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skillsthrough to the end of the primarygrades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia's development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responsesto the climate change challenge in education. It will focuson the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that existbetween national policiesand practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI's localproblem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.
MERL unit is responsible to manage the monitoring, evaluation, research and learning tasks and responsibilities for INOVASI at national and sub-national level, according to agreed framework between INOVASI and DFAT.The functions of the unit are to provide support to project team to develop interventions, measure and document changes,collect evidence, provide supportto enable learning cyclesto take place at all levels and to produce report. The MERL products are intended for internal learning, dissemination and advocacy purposes.
The Programis implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.
Purpose of the Position:
INOVASI seeks Short Term Personnel (STP) - MERL Assistants to contribute to the work of its MERL team in synthesizing what interventions work to improve student learning outcomes in Indonesia, what does not work, and under which circumstances. The evidence will be used to inform the key policy makers in making better policies. The work will involve long-term pilot research, study literature, reflection session and short-term quick turnaround analytical pieces as needed.
Applicants who originate and reside in Tanjungselor - North Kalimantan are preferred.
Duties:
Under the direction of the Provincial Manager, Provincial MERL Officer and MERL Team Jakarta, and in close collaboration with Third Party Support institutions, the Short-Term Personnel (STP) - MERL Assistants will:
- Collect, store and analyse provincial M&E data as part of implementation tracking.
- Participate as required in data collection activities facilitated by INOVASI including those carried out by third parties at the provincial, district and school level, including, but not limited to, the district diagnostic activities and the school and community baseline;
- Support the MERL Officer in responding to rapid turnaround data analysis tasks
- Contribute to collating, curating, and maintaining a database of provincial, district and school level secondary data, and other related administrative and secondary data, including report writing.
- Act as rapid response to collect quick performance related data as required.
- Support MERL-related activities at provincial/district level.
- All other research-MEL related duties as instructed by MERL Officer.
Qualifications
- Degree in Statistics, Economics, Psychology, Education Research or other relevant social science, with relevant work experience.
- Adaptable and able to perform in fast paced, high pressure and often ambiguous situations.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel; familiarity with Stata, SPSS, R or other statistical software is an advantage.
- High work ethics, includes deliver reports on time and manage data confidentiality.
- Foundational skills in data management, applied research, and quantitative/qualitative data analysis, with willingness to learn advanced methods.
- Good communication skills in Bahasa Indonesia; ability in reading and writing English is an advantage.
- Experience in research, M&E, or data-related work in education or development programs is desirable, but not required.
- Well-organized, detail-oriented, able to prioritize and manage multiple tasks simultaneously with minimal supervision.
Application closes on 24 October 2025 at 23:59 Jakarta Time.
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.
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.