Education Materials Development Consultant - Syria

            BACKGROUND

In the Middle East, NRC has over 3000 staff dedicated to assisting people affected by conflict in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. Its humanitarian interventions are based upon its programming expertise in the Core Competencies of Shelter, Education, Water and Sanitation Hygiene, Food Security, along with Information Counselling and legal Assistance (ICLA) to forcibly displaced people.  

The Syrian Crisis has now entered its eighth year, but the level and intensity of conflict in the country remained high in 2018. According to OCHA, 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance inside of Syria and millions have been forced to flee. Approximately 6.5 million people are IDPs - over one third of the total population, including those forced to leave the country, and more than 40% of the current population living inside the country.

Seven years into the Syrian crisis, 6 million school-aged children and education personnel are in need of support. 1.85 million school-aged children are internally displaced and 1.75 million children remain out of school and disconnected from learning and their peers. Conflict dynamics have changed in some communities during 2017 and it is estimated that 674,000 people (mainly IDPs) have returned to their areas of origin between January and August. It will be important to further analyse the impact that families returning home, from both inside and outside of Syria, will have on an education system that is already overburdened and challenged to meet the learning needs of Syrian children and youth. In the meantime, IDP and returnee children face challenges in returning to school  and place an additional strain on educational resources already stretched and an education system no longer able to cope, resulting in an increasing number of children and youth disconnecting from learning. 

The Syrian crisis has had a devastating impact on both the education opportunities available and the quality of those opportunities; it has left a generation of children and youth unprotected, disconnectedand unable to access their right to learn. Authorities, community members, parents, children and youth clearly identify that the most significant contributing factors that prevent access to safe and protected learning environments are security and poverty. These two factors result in family members choosing negative coping mechanisms that in normal circumstances would never be considered. With 40% of schools destroyed or damaged, under attack and/or used for military purposes, for several years now, schools have not been a safe or joyful place for children to hope and dream, but rather places of fear and trauma. Distances travelled to access learning are increasing. Many communities do not have functioning transportation services and most families do not have the resources to access the services that are available. Walking to school children face several risks, including gender-based violence and recruitment. A lack of decent and safe livelihoods for family members often results in children being removed from learning and sent to work to support the daily needs of their families. Eighty-two percent of communities surveyed by OCHA in 2017 identified that child labour, recruitment, begging and scavenging exist in their communities. Some families report that female children are often married early to reduce the financial burden and responsibility on families and ‘to keep them safe’. All these factors negatively impact on the ability of children and youth not only to access learning opportunities, but also, for those who manage to enrol and attend, to focus on their learning. Importantly the same challenges are being experienced by teachers, facilitators and trainers who also struggle to cope with their own trauma. 310,610 education personnel are estimated to need assistance and 180,000 teachers are no longer in service, leaving schools in Syria both led and managed by lower or even unqualified teachers and understaffed. In a system that is stretched and under resourced, the most vulnerable children are those with disabilities. Previously available specialised education opportunities and personnel have dramatically decreased or even disappeared in some areas, resulting in increased isolation and discrimination. 

Access to certified learning is often reliant on the availability of civil documentation, placing children, especially unaccompanied children, children of foreign fighters or undocumented parents and guardians, at risk of exclusion. Learning that is available is not always certified and access to accredited exam centres can only be found in government controlled areas, resulting in a lack of motivation to complete schooling when access to exams and to tertiary education is not available or not accessible. IDPs and refugees often have even fewer educational choices, in circumstances where their freedom to move is restricted to a camp environment where limited or no educational services are provided. 

   OBJECTIVES

The consultant will be engaged by the NRC Syria Response Office (SRO) to develop components that will make up the CEP in Communities curriculum for use in NRC Community Learning Centres/Spaces in Syria.

The deployment will comprise of the following components:

1. 
   Reporting

   The Consultant will design and develop curriculum and resources for –

• 1 curriculum areas Arabic - Grades 1 – 6

  The CEP in Communities program is aimed at preparing children who have been out of school to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to successfully reintegrate into the formal school setting.

1. Deliverables

• Arabic Curriculum and resources Grade 1 - 6

The sessions will be designed to reflect a set of competencies provided.

 TRAVEL

No travel is required. This position is home-based. 

Deadline for submission will be on the 5^thof March, 2019

Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications may be screened prior to the vacancy deadline

To apply, please send your CVs to sy.procurement@nrc.no