International Consultancy - Remedial Learning Coordinator- BMGF Partnership at UNICEF

Background and Justification

• Education is recognized as a critical development priority by the Africa Union, while the Kigali Statement of Outcomes sets out equitable and inclusive access to education for all, skills and competencies among the regional priorities for sub-Saharan countries, as they move toward the Education 2030 goals. However, despite the substantial progress that has been made in terms of access, completion and quality of basic education, disparities persist within and between countries, and learning achievement remains low as 9 in 10 children aged 10 living in Sub-Saharan Africa were unable to read a simple text.
• Without urgent remedial action focused on foundational, social and emotional skills, this generation of students is robbed of the essential grounding for ongoing learning for life and work and of the chance to reach their full potential. In fact, it is estimated that this generation risks losing US$21 trillion in potential lifetime earnings, or the equivalent of 17 per cent of today’s global GDP.  To address the learning crisis, UNICEF in partnership with Bill Gate and Melinda Foundation is supporting 10 countries in ESARO region in mainstreaming and scaling up remedial and catch-up learning programme to ensure all children acquire basic foundational reading and numeracy skills.

Scope of Work

• The scope of the assignment is to provide coordination support to 10 ESARO BMGF partnership countries, provide technical assistance, oversight implementation, consolidate updates from and disseminate with appropriate stakeholders and strengthen monitoring mechanism for the remedial programme and support countries in documenting, disseminating, and integrating remedial and catch learning programme into the national education system.

Major tasks

• Coordinates with 10 BMGF partnership countries[1] in designing workplans and support in implementing remedial and catch-up learning activities
• Provides technical support to 10 countries in strengthening programme designing, development of appropriate learning resources and teacher training and mentoring and monitoring of the programme implementation
• Provides quality assurance and oversight support in development of scale up framework and large-scale demonstration of remedial learning programme
• Creates documentation of best practices, develop knowledge products on remedial learning, organize workshop, webinars, learning sessions and disseminate within UNICEF across stakeholders
• Participates in weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings and contribute to providing updates and share insights and reflections from country coordination and implementations

Payment Schedule

• The payment will be transferred within 15 days of submission of respected deliverables.

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

• Advanced university degree or equivalent experience in Education, Psychology, Sociology or related field of social science.
• *A first-level university degree in a relevant field combined with seven years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• At least 5 years of proven experience in the field of education, teacher training, pedagogical practices and designing TLM and implementation of education programmes
• Solid experience in the design and implementation of education programme at scale.
• Excellent writing skills, planning and coordination skills, with proven ability to work independently. 
• Previous work with UNICEF (HQ or ROs) is an added advantage.
• Knowledge of French and Portuguese is an added advantage
• Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:
  • Care
  • Respect
  • Integrity
  • Trust
  • Accountability
  • Sustainability

Competencies:

• The consultant must have skill and competencies to adapt and toil-made the FLN approaches for
• countries in African continents, high quality documentation and presentation skills and coordination and
• negotiation skills with government and partners.