Consultancy - ECCE Consultant for Eight Months

UNICEF Uganda is seeking to recruit a ECCE Consultant who is required to support Ministry of Education and Sports to review the existing Guidelines for establishment of ECD centres; Community mobilization manual for use by various stakeholders including district officials, NGOs/CSO implementing partners. Most importantly, the review process will aim at articulating the implementation processes for government at both central and local government levels to coordinate, regulate and ensure quality of preprimary education provisions, in line with the NIECD framework. In addition, the consultancy will provide implementation guidance for the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) for 36 months and 72 months used by care givers with support from the local government ECD focal point officers and instructors to ensure quality and attainment of the desired outcomes.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

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Uganda is one of the over 190 countries and territories around the world where we work to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease, and discrimination place in a child’s path. Together with the Government of Uganda and partners we work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the objectives of the Uganda National Development Plan, and the planned outcomes of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

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How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Kampala is seeking the services of an ECCE Consultant. The objective of this consultancy is to provide technical support to BEAD and for strengthening system capacity for regulation and quality assurance of ECD centers as well as providing technical assistance for operationalization of the licensing and registration procedures of ECD centers including Licensing of caregivers and Training DES, profiling of ECD centers

Background:

Pre-primary education is an educational level offering early childhood education to children before they begin education at primary school. It’s a level that supports all children aged 3-5 years to be nurtured in a safe and caring environment that allows them to become healthy, alert, secure and able to learn. Effective preprimary programmes have a significant impact on a child’s abilities, attitudes, values, skills and behaviour in later life. They are critical in providing a foundation for school readiness and success in life. To ensure quality service we do not only need the policies to provide direction but also the resources in terms of finance, materials and human resources.

Despite the benefits of preprimary education, there are limited access by children in Uganda. By 2016, out of 3,614,827(100%) eligible children for pre-primary education between 3 – 5 years, only 563,913 (15.6%) children - 279,089 (49.5%) boys and 284,824 (50.5%) girls were accessing some form of preprimary education (EMIS, 2016). This means that 3,050,913 (84.4%) eligible children were not accessing any form of pre-primary education. On coverage, access and enrolment, the evidence shows that by 2016, there were only 6,798 (34.5%) registered pre-primary schools/ ECD centres with an enrolment of 563,913. 

In terms of compliance to the MoES policy standards and guidelines, the evidence shows that around 44% of pre-primary schools/ ECD centres were neither licensed nor registered while 58% of ECCE centres overall, do not meet the minimum standards for running pre-primary schools/ ECD centres. Out of the key roles in delivery of preprimary education, (establishment, management, and administration; actual provision; funding; training providers; and regulating through policy standards and guidelines), Government has by law focused on the last two roles only. The other roles have been largely assigned to private providers (mainly the FBOs, CSOs and individuals).

Accordingly, the attainment of quality preprimary is constrained by several challenges namely: (a) Limited access to preprimary education services; (b) Ineffective regulation of delivery and cost of preprimary education; (c) Lack of knowledge on the value of quality preprimary education programmes; (d) Inconsistent levels of family and community engagement; (e) Uncoordinated efforts in delivery of preprimary education; and (h) Limited access to reliable and accurate preprimary education data.

The Government of Uganda developed and approved the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy (NIECD) in 2016 as the guiding framework for all stakeholders in delivery of interventions related to Early Childhood Development (ECD) of which preprimary is part. Ministry of Education and Sports is in its final stages to approve the revised ECCE policy.

Research conducted by Cambridge Education revealed that: 32% of ECD Centers have no Center Management Committee; there was no district found to have budget or personnel for ECCE delivery; 58% of ECD Centers do not meet MoES’ minimum requirements; 44% of surveyed Centers were not licensed nor registered; the salary for teachers ranges between UGX. 100,000 and UGX. 150,000 per month; pre-primary teacher training is highly unregulated and primarily provided by private training institutions; 80% of the Centers are in urban areas while more than 70% of the population lives  in rural areas; among other findings. These operational challenges call for review of the existing operational guidelines and standards for preprimary education to regulate the provision and access of preprimary education in Uganda.

Based on the above, a consultant is required to support Ministry of Education and Sports to review the existing Guidelines for establishment of ECD centres; Community mobilization manual for use by various stakeholders including district officials, NGOs/CSO implementing partners. Most importantly, the review process will aim at articulating the implementation processes for government at both central and local government levels to coordinate, regulate and ensure quality of preprimary education provisions, in line with the NIECD framework. In addition, the consultancy will provide implementation guidance for the Early Learning and Development Standards (ELDS) for 36 months and 72 months used by care givers with support from the local government ECD focal point officers and instructors to ensure quality and attainment of the desired outcomes. 

The purpose of the guidelines is to provide more information to the key stakeholders and to operationalize the existing laws, regulations and policies on preprimary provision as follows: - 1. Providing procedures, requirements, standards, classification and regulation for establishing and running ECD centres. 2. To highlight various laws/Acts on education and the powers vested in the responsible person(s) for action in the process of licensing and registration of ECD centres. 3. To foster private sector participation in supplementing the government efforts to efficiently and effectively provide education services to all. 4. To explain the likely actions that may call for disciplinary measures in regard to delivery of preprimary education services by the providers.

SCOPE OF WORK

The objective of this consultancy is to provide technical support to BEAD and for strengthening system capacity for regulation and quality assurance of ECD centers as well as providing technical assistance for operationalization of the licensing and registration procedures of ECD centers including Licensing of caregivers and Training DES, profiling of ECD centers. Specifically:

• Support MoES to review and revise operational guidelines and standards guided by the evidence based recommendations, guidance generated from  the ECCE policy review and previous consultancy work whilst ensuring alignment with the NIECD policy.
• Support MoES to review and revise the mechanisms for licensing and registration of ECD centres as well as regular inspection, monitoring and support supervision of ECD centres.
• Support MoES in the use of Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) as pedagogical tools of formative assessment of children in ECD centers, collect data and explore ways to analyzing and using the data. Such activities, building capacity on how to use ELDS.

SPECIFIC TASKS

• Consult with BEAD team members, MoES staff, and relevant partners to develop a roadmap for the process revising the operational standards and guidelines.
• Conduct technical discussions with all stakeholders to develop and agree on the process of revising the operational standards; guidelines for ECD centres.
• Revise the operational standards, guidelines and mechanism for licensing and registration of ECD centres to ensure alignment with the revisions in the ECCE policy and NIECD policy.
• Participate in the validation process of the draft operational standards, guidelines and mechanism for licensing and registration of ECD centres that will be led by the MoES.  This may involve developing and agree on the strategy for conducting the validity of the standards and guidelines
• Participate in the validation process of the draft operational standards, guidelines and mechanism for licensing and registration of ECD centres that will be led by the MoES.  This may involve developing and agree on the strategy for conducting the validity of the standards and guidelines
• Propose, build consensus and provide mechanisms for licensing and registration of ECD centres that will be led by the MoES
• Propose, build consensus and provide mechanisms for periodical evaluation of the performance indicators and competence profiles of the ECD Centres and children of 3-5-year-old.
• Review the implementation of ELDS and propose a way forward for training of caregivers by the PTCs. This will involve working with TIET staff and DES and building their capacity on the implementation of the operational standards, guidelines and the licensing mechanism and ELDS.

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

The consultancy is open to both national and International professionals. Advanced university degree in education, social sciences or international relations, experience in implementation of policies in the social sectors and strengthening systems for effective service delivery is an asset.

Work experience: At least 2 years of experience in professional work at the national levels in programme management, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation. Experience in policy engagement, partnership creation and management, at the local, regional, and national levels.

Competencies:

• Demonstrated experience in designing, implementing or monitoring Uganda’s social sector services is highly preferred.

• Experience in programme design, management and direct implementation of Innovation initiative(s) is required.

• Demonstrated experience in partnership creation and management, ideally at the local and regional levels.

• Experience in project management and rolling out of large-scale projects especially in hard to reach areas in developing countries is highly desirable. Familiarity with the UN system is an asset.

• Strong understanding of how to evaluate and measure of school programmes.
• Excellent writing, editing, and communication skills.
• Excellent English skills required; fluency in a second language is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multicultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships.

Application Procedure/Call for Proposals

Interested candidates are required to submit a technical proposal on how they intend to approach the work. The proposal should include a timeline, and methodology, based on the Terms of Reference. The proposal must also include detailed CV of the consultant, as well as a financial proposal, clearly indicating daily rate for professional fees. The financial proposal must be all-inclusive of all costs (consultancy fees and where applicable air fares, airport transfers, daily living expenses).  This is an international level consultancy and competitive market rates should apply.

Evaluation of Candidate:

The consultant will be competitively selected from a list of applicants based on their past experience of doing similar work (extensive experience in writing donor reports, in compiling and editing annual reports for various UNICEF offices).

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The competencies required for this post are….

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

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