Education in Emergency Coordinator, Ministry of Education, Youth and Library services - Turks and Caicos

The consultant will support the Education system to reflect and to rebuild a more resilient and strong inclusive system for all the children and adolescents in Turks and Caicos.

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BACKGROUND

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, with a high-end tourist industry and an offshore financial centre.  This High-Income Country (HIC) has 31,458 people (Census 2012), an increase of 58.2% from the population of 19,886 reported in the 2001 census.  One-third of the population is under 15 years old, and 75% of the population live on Providenciales (Provo) in the Caicos Islands.

According to TCI Education Digest 2014-2015, a total of 6,141 students were enrolled in public and private schools in TCI with 4,124 in primary schools (67%) and 2,017 in high school (33%).  Of these, 65% of all students were enrolled in 15 public schools and 35% in 33 private schools.  In 2014-2015, 3,994 students were enrolled in public primary and high schools, with 2,545 students in primary school and 1,449 students in high school.  This represents 0.9% increase at the primary level and a 6% decrease at the high school level, compared to the pervious academic year.   At privately owned primary and high schools, a total of 2,147 students were enrolled, with 1,579 students in primary school and 568 students at high schools.  The number of students enrolled in private schools increased in 2014-2015 compared to the previous year by 25.6% in primary schools and by 111.1% in high schools.  306 teachers were employed at public schools, with 148 (48.3%) at primary schools, and 158 (51.7%) at high schools.  At private schools, 201 teachers were employed, with 149 (74.1%) at primary schools, and 52 (25.9%) at high schools.  Student-teacher ratio is low at 17:1 at public primary, 9:1 at public high school; and 11:1 at both private primary and high schools.

In September 2017, two powerful hurricanes -  Irma and Maria hit TCI and left tens of thousands affected.  In particular, the damages to the country left all 15 public schools and 33 private schools closed for 3 weeks in the hurricane aftermath.  A rapid structural assessment identified two (2) public schools were heavily damaged and needed reconstruction. Nine (9) public schools and three (3) private schools needed some repair work before children could return to learning.

To resume children’s learning, MOE worked tirelessly to identify temporary learning spaces for children of affected schools, and integrated classes in less affected schools, a youth centre, a gym, and two churches.  School started to open three (3) weeks after the hurricane, but only for the students in Grades 4 to 6 and Forms 4 and 5.  Two (2) public primary schools reopened to students in all grade levels. Six (6) weeks after hurricane Irma, 14 out of 15 public schools and 33 private schools were open, and approximately 100%  children were back to learning.  The academic calendar was modified to make up for the lost school days.

While the islands of Grand Turk and South Caicos were the hardest hit by hurricanes Irma and Maria, the residents of informal settlements in Providenciales (Provo) were the most affected due to their pre-hurricane precarious living conditions, poor structure of their homes, and limited resources to take needed measures to properly prepare for the hurricanes.  Children living in such environment are the most deprived and their future options are limited.  The interruption of these children’s learning tends to be the longest, as their families and communities struggle to rebuild their lives. 

While the interruption of children’s education was kept at a minimum, the education system needs to build resilience for the future events.  Due to Climate Change, hurricanes in the Caribbean are foreseen to become more powerful and frequent.  A resilient education system will be inclusive of all children, prepare schools for such natural disasters in the future, will be able to manage the risks and minimize the damage, and rapidly respond to the situation in order to minimize the interruption of children’s education. 

In this context, it is important to review the existing plans, programmes and actions at national and at school level. The need of external support is essential to ensure the mainstream of the resilience principles and to support school authorities and community, to lead the preparedness and response plans at school level.

PURPOSE OF ACTIVITY/ASSIGNMENT

The external consultant, will support the Education system to reflect and to rebuild a more resilient and strong inclusive system for all the children and adolescents in Turks and Caicos. To do so, it is necessary to:

1. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) plan should to be revised to include lessons learned from the 2017 hurricane season, and each school should develop their own DRR plan.
   1. Central DRR plans should identify specific mechanisms to bring back the most vulnerable children to learning.
   2. School-based DRR plans should be developed with community participation, and identify alternative learning spaces, water sources, and electricity. 
2. Strengthening the school management capacity.
   1. Training of school principals in school management, including DRR, by bringing in experts from universities in Barbados/Jamaica.   
   2. Training of school counselors and teachers on psychosocial support programmes, such as Return to the Happiness, for children in pre-primary to high school, so that the support to children can be provided immediately after the natural disasters.  Particular attention should be paid to the gender balance between male and female leaders to provide psychosocial support to children in order to better respond to the different needs of boys and girls.
   3. Training of teachers and communities on psychosocial support programmes for teachers and first responders
3. Raising the standard of school building structures so that school buildings can withstand of strong wind and other serious hazards, and leave minor damages. 

1. 1. Safer school standards for school building structures should be agreed and widely shared with the general public and school communities.  A document Guidance Notes on Safe School Construction by Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and the World Bank (2009) provides specific criteria based on the world-wide experience. 
   2. All future schools should be built to the agreed standard.  For the existing schools, necessary measures should be taken to make them safer for children.
   3. A monitoring mechanism should be identified to ensure the application of safer school standard to schools.

3. 4. Safer school standards to include school furniture.

5. 5. Well-built school buildings can serve as shelters during the natural disasters, however, a plan should be in place to vacate schools shortly after the all clear is given.  A plan should be developed that identifies alternative shelters for displaced persons.

4. Reliable and timely data is made available.

1. 1. Data plays a key role in building resilient education systems which are flexible and can respond to needs immediately following an event.  Strengthening of the existing Education Management Information System.

KEY EXPECTED RESULTS

Under the technical leadership of the consultant, at the end of April 2019 , the Ministry of Education, Youth and Libraries,  have defined specific measures to be adopted in the education system in Turks and Caicos in the  following  areas:

• Policy and legislation
• Pedagogical training processes
• Curriculum and teaching materials
• School leadership and participation
• Community participation

At the end of March 2019, the Department of Education has developed or strengthened :

Disaster risk management policy and plans (2) Curriculum documents  and have started to implement  the Safe School Programme, with its three components: Safe spaces, education programmes and disaster risk management plans at national and school level.

 METHODOLOGY

The consultant will follow the below methodology:

• The recommendations and suggestions need to be made guided by  the lessons  learned after Hurricane Irma and Maria in Turks and Caicos.
• There should be an extensive  consultative  process with national and regional actors to guide implementation of the safe Schools’ Programme.

There should be an extensive consultative  process with school principals, teachers and students for effective implementation of the Safe Schools’ Programme. There should be an extensive consultative process with families and communities to ensure full participation .

 WORK ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

• Strategic planning – Comprehensive plan of all the Safe School Programme framework
• Review of relevant documents  inclusive of :
  • Lessons Learned – Post Irma and Maria Response
  • Policies and legislation
  • Existing Curriculum documents
• Develop an overall DRM policy and plan for the Ministry and Department of Education.
• Draft a proposal to promote school leadership and school community participation in the development of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) plans at school level :
  • Implementing the School leadership and school community participatory approach to DRM plan development in a selected school to validate it 
  • making any necessary adjustments to the approach and implementing it in another school to validate it.
• Work with school leadership and school community to develop DRM plans at school level for seven schools (six primary and one secondary) using the validated approach.
• Monitor the implementation of the Safe Schools international strategy recommendations to ensure its full implementation.
• Comprehensive documentation will include: 
  • recommendations in relation to amendments to policies and legislation;
  • Validation reports in relation to the participatory approach to DRM plan development;
  • DRM policy and plan for Ministry and Department of Education;
  • DRM plans for seven all primary and secondary schools.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• A first University Degree in Education or social science
• A minimum of five years of professional experience, with relevant qualifications in Education in Emergencies at the National, Regional or international level.
• At least 5 years in the Education Sector with experience in programming in Emergencies; Inclusive Education; Child Development
• Experience in Education in Emergencies especially in preparedness and response.
• Experience in programme development and in developing implementation systems and processes at National, Regional or International levels.
• Sound knowledge and application of human rights and results based programming.
• Excellent writing skills in English.
• Adequate computer skills including internet navigation, must own laptop, be readily accessible via email.
• Experience working independently and from a distance.
• Experience working with multiple partners. 

DURATION OF CONTRACT

9 months

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

Prior to commencing the contract, the following conditions must be met:

An Individual Consultant will be required to submit a statement of good health, which indicates that the Consultant is fit for work and travel. In addition, the Consultant is required to certify in the Health Statement that he/she is covered by medical/health insurance. The statement includes confirmation that he/she has been informed of any inoculation required for the country or countries to which travel is authorized. He/she takes full responsibility for the accuracy of the statement.

RECOURSE         

UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. Performance indicators against which the satisfactory conclusion of this contract will be assessed include: timeliness/quality of submission and responsiveness to UNICEF and counterpart feedback.

PROPERTY RIGHTS

UNICEF shall hold all property rights, such as copyright, patents and registered trademarks, on matters directly related to, or derived from, the work carried out through this contract with UNICEF.  

MANDATORY TRAININGS

Prior to the signature of the contract, consultants/individual contractors must submit certificates of completion of the following mandatory trainings as part of the hiring documentation:

1. The Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) e-learning course is mandatory for all UN Funds and Programmes Personnel including volunteers and contractors. This self-paced course can take you about 90 minutes to complete and can be found at https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=7380
2. When traveling on UNICEF business, the Basic Security in the Field (BSITF) and the Advanced Security in the Field (ASITF) trainings are mandatory. UNDSS trainings are available at: https://training.dss.un.org/

HOW TO APPLY:

Prospective consultants should apply through UNICEF’s E-recruitment System by accessing the following link: http://jobs.unicef.org and typing in the job number 513566 in the search engine, no later than Sunday, 17 June 2018 11:59 pm (ADT). The submission package should include the following:

1. A cover letter
2. A detailed curriculum vitae

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.