Education Roster - Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

Experts in Education (consultancy)

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world’s leading children’s rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 60 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.

Purpose of the Announcement

EXPERTS IN EDUCATION

UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) seeks to establish a Roster of Education experts. Becoming a Pre-qualified Consultant in the UNICEF Roster is a one-off standard application that opens the door for potentially multiple assignments within a two year period. Once pre-qualified, consultants will be eligible for direct recruitment by UNICEF offices in the region for a two year period. Significant reductions in the time required by UNICEF to process contracts and for a consultant to be operational are expected. Over the two year period, UNICEF will make extensive use of the roster for eligible consultancy requirements; this is therefore a unique opportunity for any interested and qualified consultant to submit one single application and if entered onto the Roster to be immediately considered for any future assignments by UNICEF in the relevant area of expertise.

BACKGROUND

All children and adolescents have the right to quality education. Although national enrolment rates are high in the ECA region, an estimated 2.5 million children of basic school age and 1.6 million children of pre-primary school age are out of school, and thus out of learning. At the secondary level, 12 million adolescents are estimated not to be in school. Additionally, there are many more children, perhaps millions, from the most marginalized communities, that are excluded from national data collection procedures and thus are invisible in national indicators on education. For example, there are an estimated 5.1 million children with disabilities in the region, the majority of whom are likely to be out of school.

Children fitting certain profiles are overrepresented in the out of school population. Adolescents and pre-primary school age children are more likely to be out of school than primary school-aged children, especially when pre-primary and upper secondary education are not compulsory. Children from ethnic and linguistic minority groups (mainly Roma children) and children with disabilities are more likely than their peers to be out of school. In some countries gender stereotypes combined with age characteristics lead to boys being more excluded, and in others girls. Working children, children living in emergency or conflict situations, children from migrant and undocumented families, children living in remote rural areas, children from the poorest social and economic backgrounds make up a significant part of the out of school population. Children that perform below academic standards in school, among which are often found repeaters, children enrolling late and children attending irregularly, are at a high risk of dropping out of school. Children combining more than one profile are the most at risk of being out of school.

The children and adolescents from marginalized communities that manage to stay in school often experience barriers to learning. Learning outcomes across the region are already worryingly low, with about half of 15 year olds failing to master basic reading and mathematics skills, according to the PISA 2009 learning assessment. But for marginalized children learning levels are even lower; there are severe equity gaps in learning outcomes across the region between children and adolescents from marginalized communities, minority language groups and poor families and their peers from majority and wealthier backgrounds.

Across the ECA region, the majority of children in the 3–6 year age group do not benefit from early education programmes. There is a serious shortage of provision, and services that do exist are concentrated in urban areas; children from poor and disadvantaged families, who would gain the most, are excluded from these services on account of cost, geographical location or other factors, such as disability. The quality of early education services is a matter of concern. The absence of early education services coupled with a lack of clear starting age policies means that many children, often the poorest and most disadvantaged, enroll late in primary school – sometimes not until the age of 8, or not at all. These children begin school already one or two academic years behind their wealthier peers, making it extremely difficult for them to catch up. Equity gaps that start in the early years, widen progressively throughout children's school careers and beyond, thereby transmitting poverty and marginalization from one generation to the next.

In ECA region, the past twenty years have been a time of transition, with major political, administrative and structural changes and public finance reforms. Yet many challenges remain in establishing strong equity-enhancing and pro-poor education systems with clear oversight responsibilities at all levels. With huge inequalities between urban and rural local governments in terms of fund leverage opportunities and overall capacities, decentralization sometimes has negative impacts on equity and further excludes groups of children traditionally marginalized from education. While civil society has been more active than before in school governance, oversight mechanisms involving, families and education beneficiaries, including young people, are not yet widely spread. Despite a wide-spread free basic education agenda in the region, indirect education costs, ad-hoc funding requests for school events and maintenance, out of pocket payments and private tuition increase inequity and the economic burden of education on families. This constitutes a significant barrier to access for many children. Education financing reforms have taken place in most countries; however mechanisms to ensure that adequate funding targets students who need it most need to be improved and education systems' financial efficiency further increased.

UNICEF in the ECA Region has developed a strategy to tackle the barriers obstructing marginalized children's participation and learning in school. The Regional and Leadership Agenda (RKLA) aims to support governments in the region to close equity gaps in education. The RKLA has ten pillars or key areas where UNICEF will focus its programmes in support of governments. One RKLA focuses on improving access and learning in education under the following theme: 'Including All Children in Quality Learning'.
To advance the Regional Education Agenda, and building on the knowledge accumulated and lessons learned from the past decade, UNICEF (ECARO) and the Ministry of National Education of Turkey launched in 2013 a Call for Action to include all children in quality learning. The Call for Action was launched and endorsed by 17 out of 21 countries in the region at a Regional Ministerial Education Conference held in Istanbul from 10-13 December 2013 (www.education-equity.org).

Building on UNICEF's global Strategic Plan, the Regional Call for Action, and the recommendations of an independent multi-country evaluation of UNICEF's education initiatives in the region over the past decade, UNICEF is now bringing a renewed strategic focus to its education programming through a Regional Prospective Education Agenda. Under the theme 'Including All Children in Quality Learning' a Regional Theory of Change was developed for the years 2014-2017. The Theory of Change is articulated around four goals: (1) Every Child in School (Access, Participation and Completion); (2) Every Child Learning (Quality and Relevance); (3) Every Child Learning Early and Enrolling on Time (Early Learning & School Readiness); and (4) Every Child Supported by Effective and Efficient Governance (Education Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Financing).

This regional education agenda seeks to unite UNICEF Country Offices together with their government counterparts and development partners to work more closely toward accelerating efforts to expand access, improve quality and reduce inequities in participation and learning. The regional education agenda also aims to strengthen on-going innovations and promising initiatives at country level, generate knowledge by identifying and documenting good practices, and facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge between countries.

Children's exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia is rooted in complex, diverse and interacting situations that must be addressed through comprehensive system reforms if equity in school participation and learning is to be realized. Accordingly, across the ECA region, UNICEF has focused its programming at system level, recognizing that contributions to systemic change represent the most effective and sustainable route to the progressive realization of children's rights.

In order to support the above mentioned Regional Education Agenda, the UNICEF Regional Office for ECA is seeking technical expertise, competencies and skills in the following areas:

Education Access and Participation

Potential candidates will be required to have a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience (two years or more in the ACA region an asset) as well as expertise and competencies in one or more of these sub-areas:

(1.1) Children's Right to Education: analysis and use of human rights conventions – CRC; CEDAW; CRPD; child rights education;  (1.2) Inclusive Education: children and adolescents out of school – identification, referral, case management and monitoring; dropout and early school leaving reduction; adolescents not in education, employment or training; inclusive legal and policy frameworks; pro-poor education policies; inclusion of children from ethnic and linguistic minorities; Roma education; inclusion of children with disabilities; education of refugee and migrant children; girls' education; cross-sectoral collaboration; (1.3) Alternative and Second Chance Education: catch-up education; accelerated and after school programmes; vocational education; apprenticeship; (1.4) Education in Emergencies: preparedness and response planning; refugee education; migrants education; psycho-social support; peace building education; conflict resolution; education in emergencies supplies; school construction; (1.5) Disaster Risk Reduction in Education: DRR in education policies; mainstreaming DRR in the curriculum;  disaster planning; school safety assessments and school infrastructure; (1.6) Education Statistics and Education Data Management Systems: data collection and analysis; administrative data systems; Education Management Information Systems (EMIS); School Management Information Systems (SMIS); Community-Based EMIS (C-EMIS); Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and  Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS); census and demographic data analysis; data visualization and dissemination; (1.7) Parents' Participation: Parents/Teachers Associations (PTA's); community-based interventions.

Education Quality and Relevance

Potential candidates will be required to have a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience (including two years or more in the ECA region an asset) as well as expertise and competencies in one or more of these sub-areas:

(2.1) Curriculum and Pedagogy: curriculum development and revision; curriculum frameworks; competency-based curriculum; child-centered pedagogy; inclusive and differentiated teaching methods; individual education planning; (2.2) Language of instruction: mother tongue-based multilingual education; bilingual education; sign language; (2.3) Teacher Training: inclusive teaching and learning standards; pre-service training; in-service training; education staff professional development; teachers' induction; teachers' mentoring; second-language teacher training; training for teachers working with refugees and migrants; (2.4) Learning Outcomes: learning outcomes evaluation and assessment systems; formative and summative learning assessments; inclusive learning assessments; (2.5) Life Skills-Based Education: life skills education; livelihood skills education; financing education; entrepreneurship; (2.6) Textbooks: textbook production; textbooks rental schemes; (2.7) ICT: distance learning; virtual schools; on-line educational content including Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOC); assistive technologies for inclusive education; universal design for inclusive education; (2.8) Parents' involvement in learning: Parents/Teachers Associations (PTA's); communication for social change; community-based interventions (after-school support); parental education;.

Early Learning and School Readiness

Potential candidates will be required to have a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience (including two years or more in the ECA region an asset) as well as expertise and competencies in or more of these sub-areas:

(3.1) Inclusive early childhood education (ECE): inclusive ECE legal and policy frameworks; (3.2) Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS): language and literacy development; social and emotional development; motor development; logic and reasoning; approaches to learning; (3.3) ECE curriculum: curriculum development and revision; curriculum frameworks; inclusive and differentiated ECE teaching methods; (3.4) Early Learning Outcomes: early learning outcomes evaluation and assessment systems; Early Grades Assessments (EGRA); (3.5) ECE Teachers and staff: pre-service training; in-service training; ECE staff professional development and qualification frameworks; (3.6) ECE Statistics and Data Management Systems: data collection and analysis; ECE data systems; linkages with EMIS and SMIS; (3.7) Parent's involvement in young children's education: awareness raising; parental education;  communication for social change.
Education Governance

Potential candidates will be required to have a minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience (including two years or more in the ECA region an asset) as well as expertise and competencies in one or more of these sub-areas:

(4.1) Education Sector Analysis and Planning: education sector reforms; sector-wide approaches (SWAPs); theory of change; results-based management and programming; situation and bottleneck analysis; priorities and objectives setting; strategy formulation; programme design; costing and budgeting; delivery mechanisms; monitoring and evaluation; reporting (editing; design and layout; communication; web design); (4.2) Public Finance Management in Education: education economics; public expenditure on education; medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEF); public expenditure reviews (PER); public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS); equity-based per capita funding mechanisms and resource allocation formulas; school network rationalization/optimization; private education (schools); (4.3) Decentralization: accountability mechanisms; sources of education funding; local education staff capacity development; information flows (vertical and horizontal); (4.4) School management:  school organization (school boards, PTAs …); school autonomy; school selection and ability grouping; school choice; school resources; school accountability; private tutoring; learning time; school climate; violence in schools; (4.5) Teachers and School Staff: teacher recruitment, retention and deployment; teachers' salaries, status, motivation and working conditions.

QUALIFICATIONS OF SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE

Minimum Qualifications required are as follows:
1. Advanced university degree in one or more of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Education, Child Development, Inclusive Education, Psychology, Human Development, or other relevant disciplines related to the above areas of work.
2. Knowledge of political, social and economic issues in the ECA region.
3. Familiarity with education systems in the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia countries is an asset.
4. Experience in research and contributing to publications at the regional level in at least one of the disciplines listed above.
5. Experience with addressing equity issues and disparities in education is an asset.
6. Previous experience working with UNICEF or other UN/international development organizations is an asset.

Candidates to the UNICEF's Pre-qualified Consultants Roster should be:

- Able to communicate effectively with varied audiences, including formal public speaking
- Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment
- Able to work with different stakeholders from government institutions, international organizations, academia and NGOs
- Adopt a flexible attitude and adaptability to rapidly changing circumstances
- Computer literate; and
- Fluent in English and preferably at least one of the major languages used in the region

Remarks

How to apply:

Applicants are invited to (a) complete their UNICEF profile and (b) fill in the supplementary questionnaire. The vacancy is available on the UNICEF employment website at:
www.unicef.org/about/employ

Please apply to the Regional Roster by 27 October 2017

Should you have any issues in submitting your application, please contact eRecruitment@unicef.org

Please note that only candidates who are under serious consideration will be contacted. Once pre-qualified, consultants will be eligible for direct recruitment by offices in the region for short-term consultancies within a two year period.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourage 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 organization.