Early Childhood Education Specialist (Assessment)

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation. UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future. We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity. We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Context

UNICEF began operations in Nepal from its New Delhi office in 1964 and established the Nepal Country Office (NCO) in 1972. Over five decades of partnership, UNICEF in Nepal has contributed towards many strides the country has taken. The focus of programmes has continuously changed over the years to meet the changing needs of children, adolescents and women in Nepal. UNICEF has been a key partner for Government of Nepal in meeting its commitments towards women and children against global agendas and goals. The NCO supports the country in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation, nutrition, child protection and social policy. Besides this, the NCO also provides cross sectoral expertise on early childhood development, communications for development and planning, monitoring and evaluation. The NCO education section works closely with the Nepal’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and its line agencies, as well with International/ Non-Governmental Organizations (I/NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). NCO is closely working with Education Review Office (ERO), Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) to develop national assessment of children based on Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) (48-60 month) For this placement, the volunteer will be stationed in ERO in Kathmandu, with the expectation that s/he will support the ELDS based assessment to be more rigorous and results to be informative for planning and implementation of programme and policies. S/he will be also responsible to closely work with ECD sections in Ministry and Center for Education and Human Resource Development (CEHRD) for better implementation of ELDS. Also, the volunteer is expected to work with various Universities and research agencies to build capacity around the ELDS based assessment. Furthermore, the volunteer is expected to support the data management of Early Childhood Education and Development sector. The details of the assessment can be assessed through ERO website: https://www.ero.gov.np/category/14

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the education section, Early Childhood Development Specialist and close coordination with the ERO, Research and Development unit, Section officer with approval from the Director General, the UNV [Early Childhood Education Specialist (Assessment)] will:  Support the ERO to analyze and improve the ELDS assessment tool, especially for its psychometric properties, to validly and reliably capture children's holistic development and its different domains  Assist the ERO in tasks related to the selection, training, evaluation, and monitoring of enumerators for high quality data collection work  Support the ERO for developing and implementing transparent data management system: e.g., documentation of processes for data collection (sample size calculation, sampling methods), data cleaning, data analysis and report writing.  Prepare training packages on sampling, enumerator training, data cleaning, data analysis and reporting.  Support the ERO to generate empirical evidence, using the ELDS assessment data, to inform policy makers for effective and sustainable ECED policies and program quality improvement Coordinate with other experts for technical assistances for assessment analyses and large scale research/assessment work when necessary.  In coordination with CEHRD, support ERO to develop professional development activities for school leaders (i.e., school principals and administrators) to develop their capacity to support ECE facilitators and school teachers so that children can be instructed in developmentally appropriate learning environment  Engage and train young researchers to be able to support technical work required for ELDS assessment.  Assist parent engagement activities with a special attention to align the understanding of developmentally appropriate practice between ECD workforce and parents so that any ECD interventions will be more comprehensive and sustainable  Manage ECED related data from EMIS and other relevant sources for broader analysis  Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:  Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);  Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;  Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities.  Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;  Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;  Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.  As an active ERO & UNICEF team member, efficient, timely, responsive, client-friendly and high quality support rendered to ERO & UNICEF and its beneficiaries in the accomplishment of her/his functions, including: o Increased capacity of the ERO to conduct and present the ELDS assessment for better ECED policies; o Increased capacity of ERO and CEHRD to support related stakeholders in development appropriate practice; o Increased institutional capacity and knowledge management within the ERO and CEHRD;  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.