Education Officer

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

Context

Uganda is an East African Country with an estimated 36 million people, over half of whom are under the age of 15. Uganda’s economic growth between 1992 and 2017 has led to a decrease in income poverty from 56 per cent to 21 per cent, although 50 per cent of children under five years still live in poverty. However, severe social and economic deprivation persists, and different bilateral and multi-lateral donors, UN Agencies and NGOs are supporting the government to address these issues. As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, UNICEF’s Country Programme for 2021-2025 will support the government’s priorities in the Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation, HIV/AIDS, Education, Child Protection and Social Protection. With 56 per cent of the population under 18 years, education is an important sector for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and Uganda’s aspiration to be middle income country. Despite the adoption of free Primary Education policy in 1997, over one million primary school aged children are still out of school. Most schools do not meet minimum requirements. Only 32 percent of the children who enroll in primary grade 1 reach primary grade 7. In this context, the UNICEF Education and Adolescent Development programme supports the government in the development of an effective and efficient multi-sectoral support to adolescent development with school as the entry point for it. UNICEF support is focused on developing innovative approaches, collecting evidence from field level implementation, and supporting the government in the formulation of evidence-based policies and programmes. In doing so, UNICEF works with other UN agencies, bilateral and multi-lateral donors, and NGO partners. The UNICEF Adolescent Development initiative consists of a multi-sectoral approach with education, protection, health and water and sanitation as the main component. Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) in Collaboration with UNICEF, DLG and partners in 2021 to 2025 UNICEF Country Program and GoU and UNICEF Rolling workplan have enhanced recovery of the sectors system and learning loss through an education system strengthening (ESS) approach/strategy. This joint effort aims to address bottlenecks to MoES providing a compulsory, quality, equitable and inclusive learning outcome and skills for children and adolescents. MoES with support from UNICEF orientated districts stakeholders on the ESS strategy and will over the next 4 years consolidate the gains in strengthen the education system by strengthening the linkages with lower local governments to strengthen education systems. The key pillars of ESS are to Strengthen; 1. Information management system 2. Coordination mechanisms including cross sectoral 3. program monitoring. Under the direct supervision of the Education Specialist (Quality Education) and with close collaboration of the Quality Education team members of the Zonal offices, the UN National Volunteers will assist in the planning, implementing, monitoring and documentation of the results, lessons learnt and good practices of education system strengthening strategy; RAPID framework; Assistive device technologies in the UNICEF 29 focus districts. The UN National Volunteers will interact with District Education Officers at district level to strengthen education systems. Also, liaise with key government education stakeholders at national level to support programme monitoring.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Quality and Inclusive Education Manager or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Education Officer will: • Training the 29 district education teams and planning units in the analysis and usage of the school level data collected in planning, resource allocation, and generating key strategic interventions with education partners to address gaps at the school level in the district. • Provide technical support to 29 district education teams (435 school inspectors during using 435 tablets) in the data collection process at the school level. • Regular updates of the school database in the Kobo information management tool and the district dashboard. • Documentation of key good practices on information management at the district and school level. To showcase an effective data culture at the district level. • Technical support in the planning, budgeting, and implementation of the RAPID framework. • Monthly reports, human interest stories, and documentation of key good practices and lessons learnt in the roll out of RAPID framework. • Training of teachers in the usage of assistive device technologies with the assistive digital textbooks to facilitate inclusive teaching and learning in the classroom in the pilot 20 inclusive schools across the country. • Technical support in the installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and usage of assistive software on computers and other devices within the 20 inclusive schools. Documentation of lessons learnt and good practices in the usage of assistive device technologies to improve inclusive learning in the classroom. • Technical support to the 29 central districts to strengthen their education systems through coordination of education stakeholders and joint program monitoring. • Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. Results/expected outputs: As an active UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high-quality support rendered to UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: • An effective data culture at district and school level in the 29 districts. Collection, analysis, and usage of data in planning, resource mobilization, and allocation. • Implementation of the RAPID framework to combat learning losses in the selected districts. • Regular use of ADT technologies for learning in class by both teachers and students. • Timely technical support to budgeting, planning, implementation of education systems strengthening in the 5 central focus districts. • Documentation on key good practices, lessons learnt on the effective data culture at district and school level, RAPID framework, and Assistive device technologies in the 20 inclusive schools. • Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and documented in all activities throughout the assignment. • A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism for peace and development during the assignment, such as reporting on the number of volunteers mobilized, activities participated in and capacities developed