TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR DESIGN AND PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE TEACHERS TRAINING PROGRAM IN JUBALAND, SOMALIA

TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) FOR DESIGN AND PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE TEACHERS TRAINING PROGRAM IN JUBALAND, SOMALIA

Contents

Introduction:………………………………..…………………………. 2

Purpose of the consultancy …………………………………………………………………………..3

Consultancy Objectives ………………………………………………………………………..3

Specific Tasks to be performed by the Consultant …………………………………………………..4

Sampling techniques: ………………………………..…………………………………………4

Deliverables / Expected Outputs ……………………………………………………………………………4

Lines of Communication / Reporting ……………………………………………………………………..5

Location …………………………………………………………………………..5

Timeframe …………………………………………………………………………..5

Qualifications and experience ……………………………………………………..……………………..5

HOW TO APPLY: ……………………………………………………………………………6

Introduction:

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has been present in Somalia since early 2004. Over these years, NRC has demonstrated a regional competence and expertise in working with displaced and host community populations. NRC has mainly focused on Somalis who are displaced by conflict and more recently by the drought and famine as well as their host communities. NRC Somalia has good community acceptance at different levels and among different stakeholders including, but not limited to, local communities, government, humanitarian actors/agencies. This strengthens the organization’s ability to operate safely and deliver assistance and protection in Somalia, including hard to reach areas. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Somalia has extensive presence in key locations in Somalia and robust operational capacity. This enables NRC to reach a larger number of beneficiaries, and strategically be able to respond quickly and efficiently.

NRC has been implementing teachers training programs alongside other education activities through liaising with teachers training institutions in the country. In 2019/2020 NRC Jubaland trained 70 teachers through EUTF project at Jubaland teachers training college for one year pedagogical skills training program. To further expand the teachers training program in line with education sector strategic plan 2018-2020 on “strengthening in-service teacher training systems for all the subsectors”, the need to develop and design an online teachers training programme is essential in Somalia and particularly in Jubaland. The online teachers training programme will give teachers in the most remote villages access to in-service training that will ultimately improve the learning outcome and the quality of the education programmes.

While the disruption to education created by Covid-19 draws attention to the need for creative modalities that enable ongoing support to pupils across East Africa, for Somalia, and Jubaland in particular, it has the capacity to serve as a catalyst for supporting the establishment of remote teacher training platforms needed at all times to enable teacher engagement and training in a highly insecure, predominantly rural and remote population with heightened security and protection concerns for children and their families. The Jubaland Ministry of Education and Higher Learning has an established plan for the provision of online teacher training but too few resources to enable it, leaving the state with fewer than 2,000 teachers across both primary and secondary school, around 23 per cent of them women and only 30 per cent of whom have some form of qualification. 

Purpose of the consultancy

In conjunction with Norwegian Refugee council (NRC) Somalia and NRC Region Office (EASY), the consultant will take the lead in developing:

• a compelling, evidence-based proposal in line with objectives outlined below, and
• implementable and saleable online teacher training programme

The consultant will bring to the programme design process previous experience from developing and writing successful proposals involving several stakeholders for institutional donors. It is desirable that the consultant also brings onboard a good understanding of issues relating to online training and or learning platforms, that have both online and off-line functionalities as well as FREE (free of cost) user platforms.

With this experience, the consultant will help develop a program design for online training of primary school teachers responding to teacher capacity gaps as will be determined in consultation with Ministry of Education and higher learning and Teacher Training Institutes. This will require scoping, reviewing, analyzing, and integrating any existing online teacher training platforms as well as e-learning resources in Jubaland. The consultant will explore the range of feasible options for online teacher training in insecure and remote areas with significant mobile and by extension internet connectivity challenges. The consultant will organize a series of consultations to facilitate NRC’s reviewing, analysing, and prioritizing feasible options and implementation of activities for the online training programme for teachers.

Consultancy Objectives

The overall objective of the consultancy is to design a functional and scalable online teacher training programme that will give teachers in insecure and remote villages an opportunity to increase their qualifications and capacity for teaching.

Specific objectives

• To establish the full potential for the online teacher training program, how it can work in Juba land state, whole of Somalia with the possibility of replication to other countries in the region.
• To identify existing and or potential online teachers training resources that the online teacher training program can leverage on.
• To Identify the online platforms which can be utilized to deliver online teachers training program   
• To draw clear techniques on how to measure the progress of the online teachers training progress
• In consultation with Ministry of Education and Higher Learning and NRC identify the key teacher capacity gaps to be addressed by the programme
• In consultation with Ministry of Education and Higher Learning and Jubaland Teacher Training Institute identify and outline the role the latter can play in assessing the progress of the teachers enrolled in the online training programme and potential certification for the teachers in the training program.
• To propose sustainability strategies for the online training programme beyond any potential donor funding 

Specific Tasks to be performed by the Consultant

The consultant will develop, in consultation with NRC Somalia and East Africa and Yemen Regional Office, a detailed work plan that will include the following tasks:

• Review relevant secondary literature including, but not limited to Ministry of Education and Higher learning strategy paper, Jubaland Teacher Training Institute curricula for teacher training, relevant papers (evaluations, capacity assessments, etc) within the Ministry of Education and Higher learning relating to teachers’ training needs or capacities, among others. This should include reviewing and compiling relevant research, evidence from prior similar interventions, best practices, and lessons learned.
• Draft and engage NRC and Ministry of education and Higher Learning to finalise primary data collection tools and methodologies to assess teacher-level training needs, opportunities and constraints, with regards to online teacher training programme.
• Consult with relevant internal and external stakeholders, through Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and Workshops
• Meet with Ministry of Education and Higher Education Officials, Jubaland Teacher Training Institute Officials and NRC Somalia management team and other stakeholders to explore/ develop essential and potential collaborations on relevant activities.
• Conduct problem analysis and validation workshops with relevant NRC staff, Ministry of Education and Higher Learning, Jubaland Teachers Training Institute and possible other relevant stakeholders.
• Based on the primary and secondary information gathered, and in accordance with the purpose of this consultancy design a programme, including logical framework (LFA), budget, and write a full proposal and a report documenting the process.

• Sampling techniques: The consultant will randomly select teachers, college principles and other relevant teachers training stakeholder for data collection.

  Deliverables / Expected Outputs

  • Undertake a detailed analysis of the collected information/data using appropriate data analysis framework/tools
  • A completed, comprehensive LFA for the proposed online teacher training programme that is based on the primary and secondary data findings/analysis. This should be developed with involvement of NRC staff, Ministry of Education and Higher learning, Jubaland Teacher Training Institute and other partners/ stakeholders as identified during the consultancy
  • The report and the program design should consist of not more than 25 pages

  A report should consist the following contents:

  • Executive Summary
  • Table of contents
  • List of abbreviations and acronyms
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • Findings
  • Online teachers training program design
  • Conclusion and recommendations
  • Annexes: Assessment tools and questionnaires, lists of reviewed documents (if any), list of interviewed stakeholders, schedule of meetings and travel

  Lines of Communication / Reporting

  The consultant will work closely with the Project staff in Kismayo and shall have a primary accountability to the Head of Programs.

  Location

  Jubaland, Somalia

  Timeframe

  Approximately 30 working days, starting 20^th October 2020 until submission on 20^th November 2020 (please note the start/end date of the assignment may change due to unavoidable circumstances in which case a revised timeframe will be drawn up with the mutual agreement of both parties).

  Qualifications and experience

  a) A Master’s Degree in education, social sciences, or relevant field

  b) Must have at least five (5) years relevant work experience in teacher education research work

  c) Experience in leading the design, execution, and/or management of online training programmes. Strong programme design skills, including capacity to prepare logical, coherent, and consistent technical documents including logframes and budgets.

  d) Academic, research, or consulting experience in teacher education/training programming is highly preferred.

  e) Prior demonstrated experience from developing and writing proposals for institutional donors,

  f) Excellent English and Somali communication, reporting and editorial skills

  g) Ability to work in and/or lead a team of surveyors in Kismayo districts, Somalia

  HOW TO APPLY:

  Interested applicants who meet the above requirements must submit the following;

  – A technical proposal including scope of work including earliest date of availability to undertake assignment (maximum 6 pages) and a proposed work plan

  – A financial proposal quoted in USD (US Dollars)

  – Demonstration of Capability i.e. CV of the lead consultant/s and, if quoting for an organization, attach the CV of any other personnel to be involved in the assignment.

  – A list of previous work done (Work Completion Certificates can be attached) including telephone and email contacts of three (3) referees who can validate technical expertise

  – One (1) report of a similar assignment carried out by the Consultant

  All applications should be addressed to so.jlprocurement@nrc.no with the subject of the email as ‘ToR-online teacher training program design’ before Monday 07^th October, 2020.

  NRC will only contact short-listed candidates for presentations.