INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT TO REVIEW INCLUSIVE EDUCATION ISSUES IN PRE- AND IN-SERVICE TEACHER TRAINING CURRICULA IN MONGOLIA

International individual consultant for conducting a review of education issues in pre - and -in service teacher training in Mongolia

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For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background

 Mongolia has sustained high net enrolment rates at the primary and secondary education levels currently at 96.9 per cent and 95.6 per cent respectively. However, certain groups of children are still facing challenges in having full access to quality education services. Children with disabilities are perhaps the most disadvantaged in terms of access to education. The 2010 National Population and Housing Census, reported that only 44.4 per cent of children and youth aged 6 to 19 years old among 30,132 children with disabilities were enrolled in general education. Pre-school gross enrolment rate is 80.9 per cent as of the 2016/2017 academic year. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport, a total of 8,362 children with disabilities are enrolled in general secondary schools who make 1.5 per cent of all students and 1,513 (0.6%) young children with disabilities are enrolled in early childhood education programs nationwide. However, it should be noted that data on children with disabilities have lots of disparities due to lack of a uniform definition and methodology to define and assess disability types in the country.

There are only six specialized schools that cater to the needs of children with disabilities, which are all located in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar enrolling just 1,535 students (42.4% girls) as of the 2015/2016 academic year. Two out of these schools are for children with hearing and visual impairments and the remaining three are for children with mental and combined disabilities. Children from the rural provinces who wish to be enrolled in specialized education services need to stay in the school dormitories, which makes it difficult for the children to stay away from their families during the entire academic year. Regarding public kindergartens, there are only two special kindergartens in Ulaanbaatar enrolling 174 children with disabilities along with over 170 children without disabilities at one of them. 

 Although the enrolment of children with disabilities in mainstream schools and kindergartens has increased in recent years, the coverage is still low and children with severe disabilities living in remote rural areas do not have any education opportunities. The majority of over 770 mainstream schools nationwide do not have a disabled friendly environment including infrastructure and trained human resources. In the absence of a disabled friendly environment at mainstream schools, local non-formal education centers become the last resort to provide education services for children with disabilities along with other dropped out-of-school children as about 40 per cent of students enrolled in non-formal education programs are children with disabilities. For young children with disabilities, the prevalent option is staying at home under a care of an “unemployed” adult given the limited capacity of kindergarten facilities nationwide. 

 UNICEF Mongolia with its partners has been undertaking an initiative to promote inclusive education for children with disabilities in its target areas of Khuvsgul province and Nalaikh district in 2013-2017 benefitting over 150 children with disabilities, which generated a tested inclusive education model that started being replicated to other areas including Bayankhongor, Zavkhan and Gobi-Altai provinces. The initiative extensively included capacity building trainings for school staff, students and community members on inclusive education approaches, classroom and individual teaching for children with special needs and community engagement for supporting inclusive education, as the schools seriously lacked the appropriate technical capacity and knowledge to provide adequate inclusive education services for children with disabilities and special needs. The trainers were from several non-governmental organizations with active roles for educating children with disabilities, the special schools from Ulaanbaatar and the Institute for Teachers’ Professional Development, which is the main in-service teacher training provider in all subject areas including inclusive education methodologies mainly for the teachers working in their fifth and tenth years of service.

 The Mongolian State University of Education is the main pre-service teacher training university in Mongolia, which prepares all subject area teachers for pre-school, primary and secondary education through its six schools including five schools based in Ulaanbaatar and one branch school in Arkhangai province. Its School of Education Studies and School of Teachers with two divisions that prepare pre-school and primary school teachers all have different curricula on inclusive education for children with special needs with varying contents and credit hours, which started being delivered in recent years.

 As cohesive and integrated teacher training curricula on special and inclusive education both at pre-service and in-service teacher training systems is the core for making schools inclusive, which is currently very weak, UNICEF Mongolia is seeking the services on an international individual consultant to conduct a review of inclusive education issues in pre- and in-service teacher training curricula and provide recommendations and suggestions that will inform the Mongolian Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport, the Mongolian State University of Education and the Institute for Teachers’ Professional Development in improving equity lens in respective curricula.

Purpose of the Assignment

The purpose of this short-term contracting assignment is to provide support in conducting a review of the inclusive education issues in pre- and in-service teacher training curricula.  The contractor is also expected to provide two sets of recommendations for: (i) improving the pre- teacher training curricula contents used at several schools of the Mongolian State University of Education and their internal cohesion and integration; and ii) improving the in- teacher training curriculum content and its cohesion and integration with the pre- service teacher training curricula.

Assignment Tasks and Expected Deliverables

The short-term contractor is expected to perform the following work assignments:

1. Prepare an analysis report on the review of special education curricula for pre-service teacher training currently being used by the School of Education Studies of the Mongolian State University of Education.  The review includes curricula being used for all subject area teacher preparation classes, specialized inclusive education teacher preparation classes, as well as its special education internship program implemented for the students in their final year – Draft version by 26 September 2017, final version by 11 October 2017;
2. Prepare an analysis report on the review of special education curricula used at other schools of the Mongolian State University of Education with a specific focus on School of Teachers with two divisions that prepare pre-school and primary school teachers – Draft version by 26 September 2017, final version by 11 October 2017;
3. Prepare an analysis report on the review of special education curriculum for In-Service Teacher training currently being used by the Institute for Teachers’ Professional Development  - Draft version by 29 September 2017, final version by 11 October 2017; 
4. Provide a set of recommendations for improving the content of different curricula on special education including elective courses for students majoring in special education such as courses on sign language teaching, speech, physical and occupational therapies, internship programs offered by School of Education Studies of the Mongolian State University of Education  - by 25 October 2017;
5. Provide a set of recommendations for improving cohesion and integration of different curricula on special education, composition of types of course provision such as lectures, seminars, internships and laboratory classes, capacity building needs for both pre-service and in-service teacher training institutions -  by 25 October 2017;
6. Submission of final reports incorporating comments and suggestions by respective parties by 10 November 2017; and
7. Provide other policy recommendations and suggestions for improving inclusiveness of Mongolian general education schools if required and time permitted by the end of the consultancy services.  

 Duration

 Contract duration will be approximately 9 weeks from 11 September until 17 November 2017.  This allows for 1 week settlement of payments after the last deliverable submission on 10 November.

 Location

 The Consultant will be primarily home-based (estimated at five weeks), with 1 required trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for about three weeks in September 2017 to work with professors, lecturers and specialists from the two main teacher training institutions – the Mongolian State University of Education and the Institute for Teachers’ Professional Development – to review various special education curricula used for pre-service and in-service teachers trainings.  

 The individual should include a proposed travel lump sum budget (one round-trip economy-class airfare, per diem allowances, visa fee, travel and health insurance) as part of the proposal response. Travel arrangements are the responsibility of the individual and no Travel Authorization will be issued by UNICEF.  

Definition of supervision arrangement and support from UNICEF

 Direct supervisor

1. The Consultant will be directly supervised by Bolorchimeg Bor, Education Specialist, UNICEF Mongolia.

 Frequency of performance review

Bi-weekly and as required. Formal performance assessment shall be conducted at the end of the contracting period.

 c.         Official travel involved

During this mission to Ulaanbaatar, the consultant may be requested (at the discretion of the Contract Supervisor) to undertake domestic field trips.  In the event that domestic travel is needed, UNICEF will assist the Consultant with the trip coordination in line with organizational policies.  Consultant’s international travel shall be based on economy class travel, regardless of the length of travel and consultant must travel on UNICEF approved airlines.

 d.         Type of Support to be provided by UNICEF

The contract supervisor, will be available, as/when required to provide the necessary support as follows: 1) Preparation/planning including providing of background documents, data and materials; 2) Coordination of communication via phone, skype and e-mail; 3) Coordinate timely comments to analysis and results; 4) Quality assurance and revision period in coordination with respective officers from UNICEF Mongolia Office; and 5) Support the organization of a workshop in November 2017.

e.         Indicators for evaluation of outputs

• Timeliness
• Achievement of goals
• Quality of work.

 Terms of payment/link of payments to deliverables:

Payment will be made upon submission of expected deliverables certified and accepted by the Contract Supervisor.

- 70% upon the submission of two finalized draft analysis reports on the review of inclusive education curricula and recommendations for improving integration and cohesion as well as the content of different curricula on special education used at pre-service and in-service teacher training institutions around 25 October 2017.

- 30% upon submission of finalized documents incorporating comments and suggestions by respective parties around 10 November 2017.

UNICEF penalty clause 

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold up to 30% of the total consultancy fee in the case that the deliverables are not submitted on schedule or do not meet the required standards.

Proprietary rights

Copyright and ownership of all documents produced will remain with UNICEF.

 Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education and Years of relevant experience

The contractor is expected to possess the following minimum qualifications:

• Master’s or higher degree in education majored in special and inclusive education for children with special needs, social science or related field
• Over 10 years’ experience working in the special education field at teacher training universities and colleges
• Extensive experience in development and implementation of curriculum on special and inclusive education for children with special needs
• Proven track of record of delivering high quality products (samples of previous work assignments required)
• Proven analytic skills (in terms of synthesizing information and providing relevant analysis)
• English fluency and strong oral and written communications skills.

Competencies of Successful Candidate

 To view our competency framework, please click here. 

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel lump sum and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable).  Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

For application please provide:

a) Letter of interest

b) Price proposal (daily fee and travel lump sum)

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.