TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS

Title: CONSULTANT – EDUCATION PLANNING

Funding Code:

Type of engagement

X  Consultant 

    Individual Contractor Part-Time

    Individual Contractor Full-Time

Duty Station: Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The incumbent will provide critical technical support to maximise learning outcomes, by supporting policy influencing in Evidence Generation and Planning, based on alignment with the National Education Policy as priority areas of the UNICEF Education programme, in partnership with the Department of School and Mass Education, Government of Odisha. Providing overall policy input and expertise for education policies, frameworks, guidelines, and execution, and supporting strategic decision-making and results-based planning and monitoring, to maximise learning outcomes will be core to this role and will entail planning, capacity building, drafting of technical documents and presentation materials, alongside research.

Scope of Work (Include Background/Rationale/Key Objectives of the Assignment):

BACKGROUND/RATIONALE

Odisha is the second state in the country to endorse the Right to Education (RTE) rules and commit to making the right to learn for every child a reality. In Odisha, there are 52,216 Primary and Upper Primary schools to provide education at the elementary level. There are 10017 secondary schools and 1952 higher secondary schools. Odisha’s literacy rate is 72.9% with wide disparities in rural-urban (70.2%- 85.7%) SC - ST (69.02 and 52.24) and gender gap (General -81.6% - 64%), Scheduled Tribes (Male - 63.70 - Female 41.2%) contexts as per Census 2011. About 80 percent of Odisha’s children in the age group of 3-6 access early childhood education in 74154 Anganwadi centers.

The Odisha education sector has led many innovative practices in the recent past in terms of the qualitative and quantitative expansion of RTE compliance in schools. UNICEF has been closely working with the Department of School and Mass Education on NEP 2020 and the State Curriculum Framework, Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, skilling and career guidance, student participation, WASH in schools, child protection, and disaster resilience in schools.   Equity challenges in education in Odisha are many—language, Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, migration, and disability, DSME Odisha has pioneered Mother Tongue-based Multi-Lingual Education as an equity-based approach for facilitating learning for children where language has been a barrier to learning. With UNICEF’s consistent advocacy, inclusive education investment has expanded in Odisha to inclusive spaces and practices in schools. Access audits of school buildings and training of engineers and teachers on inclusive design and practices were initiated to promote inclusive education.

Policy influencing and advocacy in the form of evidence-based planning and monitoring, such as through the dissemination of National Achievement Survey results, the Foundational Learning Study, engagement with DIETs to build teacher capacity, DIET-CRC linkage, etc. have marked the progressive realization of UNICEF’s continued engagement in the state. Starting in 2020, greater emphasis has been laid on access to continued learning through innovative interventions like the Alternative Internship Programme, the School in a Bus and School on a Bike, Second Chance Learning, etc., given the context of COVID-19. With the emphasis on adolescent development in the new Country Programme Document, there has also been an emphasis on adolescent learning and engagement through interventions like career guidance, life skills, gender-transformative curricular integration, etc. Furthermore, continued efforts for Early Childhood Care and Education activities in Anganwadi Centers with the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Odisha, as well as tribal school-based interventions with the ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department, Government of Odisha, have also been ongoing. UNICEF Odisha works collaboratively with state government departments, education promotion fora and non-governmental organizations to deliver results in the best interests of children and adolescents, with respect to every child’s right to learn. Here, UNICEF acts as a technical and strategic partner of choice for government departments, and as a collaborator for non-governmental organization partners, thus bringing evidence-based insights, contextual and regional familiarity, understanding of learning outcomes and school processes, as well as child and adolescent development into technical support offered for policymaking.

Thus, for the purpose, technical support focused on the National Education Policy and aligned outcomes like evidence-based planning and monitoring, capacity building and development of technical documents and knowledge products for policy advocacy, is required. Hence, UNICEF Odisha state office is seeking to onboard a consultant to support key education interventions in these areas being undertaken by UNICEF Odisha in partnership with the state government. These efforts will significantly contribute to establishing, streamlining, and capacitating for evidence-based planning in the school education space. As a result, UNICEF will be able to support the government with qualitative improvements in the delivery of policies and programmes, for increased efficiency.

KEY OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

• Support on planning, including results-based monitoring of promotional and quality delivery activities for education evidence generation and planning
• Support capacity building and handholding of government functionaries across stakeholder Departments, to further the aims of evidence-based planning and implementation
• Support the documentation, development of presentation and communication materials, strategy notes and results-based narratives to build understanding and provide pathways for effective execution of education policies
• Collate best practices, contemporary research, models, and case studies alongside intervention-specific evidence, to aid decision-making at the policy level.

Application to be submitted to – bhubaneswar@unicef.org

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