UNICEF Turkey

UNICEF Turkey
TERMS OF REFERENCE
INSTITUTIONAL CONSULTANCY
DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL ORIENTATION
ROGRAMMES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD, PRIMARY
and LOWER SECONDARY EDUCATION
(REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A)
Programme/Project/Activity Title and Work Plan Code: Completion of Primary Education and
Transition to Secondary Education, 2014-15 Rolling Work Plan with Ministry of National Education
(Activity 2.4. Orientation Programmes)
I.
BACKGROUND
Through a combination of international articulations such as the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All (EFA) goals, countries are working to ensure
universal access to quality basic education1. Mere access to education is not sufficient—the
quality and duration of education is equally important. In many countries, not all children
who enrol in first grade complete the secondary education. Children must not only enrol in
school; they must complete it. And, human rights values and principles must be the guiding
force in the classroom2.
Starting school and transitioning from one school to another or one level to another is a very
crucial experience for most children and could provoke distress for many of them if they are
not developmentally ready to cope with changes due to the new learning environment.
Ongoing research confirms that children’s readiness to school is multifaceted; it
encompasses a range of developmental skills—cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and
language—that children need to thrive. Moreover, children’s school readiness depends on
the demands that the school places on the children and the support it provides, as well as
the children’s knowledge and skills3. It is widely acknowledged that school orientation is
especially significant as readiness for school is predictive of children’s long-term academic
and occupational achievement as well as their successful evolution not only in the school
system but in their daily life. Therefore, the concepts of “school readiness” and “school
orientation” are all at the heart of any intervention to promote a healthy development and
sound learning in order to ensure that all children take full opportunity of quality education.
What is overlooked is the fact that investment in school readiness and orientation are the
critical foundation for children’s success in school and life.
1
Britto, P. R. (2012). School readiness: A conceptual framework. NY: UNICEF.
UNICEF (2015). Education for all. Online: http://www.unicef.org/education/index_44870.html
3
Ackerman, D. & Barnett, W. S. (2005). Prepared for kindergarten: What does “readiness” mean? National
Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER): Policy Brief.
2
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 1 of 9
School readiness and orientation have become an important political and social issue in
Turkey. Access to education and entry to and completing formal schooling have been an
important main policy goal, among others, of the Turkish government. The Turkish
Parliament, with the recommendation of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE),
instituted several changes to its national educational system, including the compulsory
education bill, which extended compulsory education from 8 to 12 years. This bill brought
several more changes to education in Turkey, such as lowering the minimum age for
entering school and redefining the 12 years of compulsory education into 3 levels—primary,
middle, and high school—of 4 years each. These new changes implied funding, additional
personnel, and restructuring of schools to provide separate primary and lower secondary
institutions, curricular reforms, and professional development for teachers so they could
adapt to the changes. In order to put these changes into effect, the MoNE revised the
curricula for kindergarten and first grade, partly restructured the physical environments of
elementary schools, offered a few professional development activities for first-grade
teachers, recruited new teachers, and permitted teachers to change their areas of teaching
for a smooth transition4. The MoNE has also initiated an orientation program model for
secondary education in 2013. This modality has been pilot tested and the MoNE awaits the
program for implementation. The need for a cohesive school orientation program for
kindergarten, 1st grade and 5th grade was determined by the MoNE through a small scale
analysis of needs and current provision conducted on December 25-26, 2014. At the
conclusion of
According to National Education Statistics (NES)5, the proportion of children in Turkey who
benefit from primary education has greatly increased as a result of the comprehensive
reforms efforts made by the Turkish Ministry of National Education with the technical
support of UNICEF to address the education challenges. In order to increase the quality of
education services that these children receive, further work is needed. One area that
requires attention is children’s orientation to school. Children’s orientation to school has
been found to be even more challenging for four specific groups6, for instance, children from
socioeconomically disadvantaged children, children with special needs and children who do
not attend early childhood education.
It is vital to note that because children’s ability to adapt to school is dependent upon the
environment in which they develop, families, services, communities and schools all share a
responsibility to help children to overcome the challenges that they face when they start
school. Ready schools share several characteristics with UNICEF’s child-friendly schools
4
Buldu, M. & Er, S. (Under Review). School entry age dilemma: Views and experiences of Turkish teachers and
families on a new educatıon policy. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice (ESTP).
5
Ministry of National Education (2014). National Education Statistics Formal Education 2013/'14. Ankara:
Ministry of National Education, Presidency of Strategy Development.
6
Rosier, K. & McDonald, M. (2011). Promoting positive education and care transitions for children.
Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 2 of 9
(CFS)7. Common to both is the mission of providing all children with a high-quality learning
environment that offers appropriate levels of instruction and is safe, secure and inclusive.
School readiness and orientation is a powerful framework for improving equity in access to
education and in learning outcomes, especially for marginalized children 1. The goal of
UNICEF’s 2011-2015 country programme is to support the efforts of Turkey to achieve
disparity reduction and social inclusion. This is aimed to be achieved through adoption of
national policies and strategies to strengthen capacity and to provide quality and inclusive
education for all children by translating policies and program into the classroom so that all
children, especially the most vulnerable ones, benefit from it. With this in mind, in Turkish
Education system there is a need for development of school orientation programs that will
enable equitable high quality education services to all children who will start early childhood
education (kindergarten), primary education (1st grade) and lower secondary education (5th
grade) programmes. UNICEF’s role in developing these type of programmes is to strengthen
national institutional capacity to deliver quality education services to fulfil the right to
education. As indicated in UNICEF TCO’s 2014-15 Rolling Work Plan (Completion of Primary
Education and Transition to Secondary Education) with Ministry of National Education, the
General Directorate of Basic Education at the MoNE has committed itself to improve the
quality of education services and is willing to adopt cohesive school orientation programs.
Purpose of the Assignment:
The main purpose of this assignment is to develop cohesive school orientation programmes
(for kindergarten, 1st and 5th grades) that will support children, teachers, school counsellors,
school administrators and families. The assignment also includes an assessment of school
needs and current provision prior to programme development stage and an evaluation of
the effectiveness of each element of the programmes.
The orientation programmes will include a series of strategies or activities that early
childhood education, primary education and lower-secondary education programmes will
implement to assist students just starting school. The orientation period will cover the first
couple weeks of the school year, one of which only will be dedicated to orientation activities.
The orientation period will cover a broad period of time from starting school until successful
settlement of the student at school and will include possible three phases—preparation,
induction and consolidation. The programmes need to include, but may not be limited to,
the following categories of activity: administrative, curriculum, pedagogy, management of
learning, social and personal needs of children, and family needs.
The assignment will also involve development of school orientation and transition tools
(programme manual, orientation activity books/booklets, teacher guidebooks and family
handbooks) that will be used by all stakeholders of school orientation processes. The tools
7
UNICEF (2009). Child friendly schools manual. New York: UNICEF.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 3 of 9
are hoped to support teachers, counsellors and administrators to make the schools ready for
children and support families to help their children to get ready for school.
In addition, the assignment includes an assessment of school needs and current provision
prior to programme development stage. Prior to the implementation stage, a training for
trainers of the programme will be needed. Following the implementation of orientation
programmes, the effectiveness of each element of the programmes will be evaluated in
order to identify how they can be further enhanced.
Target Population:
Children who will start early childhood education (kindergarten), primary education (1st
grade) and lower secondary education (5th grade) programme, teachers in these
programmes, school counsellors, and administrators who serve to these children; and,
families of the children who will benefit from the orientation programmes.
II.
METHODOLOGY:
To develop the school orientation programmes the selected institutional consultant (IC) is
expected to carry out the following methodological approach:
1. The IC organizes meetings with UNICEF Turkey Country Office (TOC), the MoNE and
other stakeholder groups to initiate the programme development process.
2. The Technical Team of Experts (TTE) of the selected institutional consultant analyses
the logic of the school orientation programmes on the basis of official documents
using the existing literature on school orientation programmes. The TTE is expected
to conduct a desk review of documents at both global and country levels and submit
a review report.
3. A need analysis (an audit of school needs and current provision) is expected to be
conducted by the TTE via a workshop organized by UNICEF TOC and the MoNE. In
addition, the TTE team may also conduct a series of in-depth interviews and group
discussions, where appropriate, with selected key informants and stakeholders.
4. School orientation tools (programme manuals, orientation activity books/booklets,
teacher guidebooks and family handbooks) that will be used by all stakeholders of
school orientation processes are developed by the TTE.
5. The TTE develops a training module for the developed school orientation
programmes. The training module is expected to be used for face-to-face trainings
and web training.
6. The tools and modules noted in items # 4 and 5 are subject to a quality assessment
by the MoNE authorities and UNICEF TOC.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 4 of 9
7. The TTE revises the tools and modules based on the feedback received from the
MoNE authorities and UNICEF TOC.
8. The TTE offers a training for the trainers selected by the MoNE authorities using the
training module that was developed by the TTE. The total number of trainers that will
attend to this training is eighty-one (plus the MoNE programme team).
9. During the implementation of the school orientation programmes in September,
2015 the TTE is expected to evaluate the effectiveness of the orientation
programmes. An evaluation model inclusive of a set of evaluation questions is
expected to be proposed and validated by the TTE. Then, the TTE also specifies the
indicators and provides partial answers to the questions on the basis of existing
information. TTE also identifies the assumptions remaining to be tested in the field
and develops its work plan for data collection and analysis.
10. The TTE implements its work plan for data collection. It applies the specified
techniques (i.e., questionnaires, observations, interviews, focus groups, case studies,
etc.) to analyse the data. A final evaluation report is expected to be developed by the
TTE.
11. The TTE draws up its final report, which includes the findings and conclusions as a
response to the questions asked, as well as an overall assessment. This report also
includes recommendations that are clustered and prioritised.
12. The final report is subject to a quality assessment by the MoNE authorities and
UNICEF TOC.
13. After the selected institutional consultant finalizes the required documents, tools and
reports, they are disseminated to the relevant partners. Then, the programmes are
posted on a publicly accessible website upon the approval of the MoNE authorities.
LOCATION:
In general, the task described in the ToR is expected to be completed in Ankara, Turkey. The
needs assessment study will be conducted in Ankara; however, the trainings and data
collection might take place in any province, which will be selected by the MoNE, where the
most vulnerable children attend school.
SUPERVISOR:
Education Specialist, Inclusive Primary Education
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 5 of 9
III.
DURATION AND COST OF ASSIGNMENT
 Duration: The assignment will cover the period between May 4, 2015 and November
30, 2015. It is estimated that 510 man/days are needed for the completion of the
assignment.
 Payment schedule: UNICEF will issue a contract in YTL. The payment will be made
upon the delivery of requested outputs as specified in the contract.
 Reservations: UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the contract without a prior
notice and/or withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if
the rules and the regulations regarding confidentiality, ethics and procedures of
UNICEF and the project partners are not followed, if work/outputs are incomplete,
not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All relevant intellectual property rights
in the developed materials/products/documents and associated tools will, upon their
development, vest in the MoNE in Turkey.
IV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Technical proposals should be written in English and submitted in the following format:
I. Cover Page
II. Table of Contents
III. List of Tables and Figures
IV. Abbreviations Used
V. Introduction
VI. Program Description
 Program Background
 Turkish Education Context
 Rationale for Proposed Programs
VII. Methodology for Completing Tasks
 Program Development, Implementation and Evaluation
 Description of Deliverables
VIII.
Work Plan
 Description of Work Packages
 Tentative Work Schedule
 Success Indicators
 Associated Risks & Back-up Plan
IX. Qualifications of the Experts
 Relevant Professional Background and Experience
X. Bibliography
XI. Appendices
 CVs of the proposed Technical Team
 Short Descriptions of the Relevant Work (Ongoing and/or Completed)
 References of the Institutional Consultancy
XII. Financial Proposal (Must be submitted in a separate sealed envelope)
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 6 of 9
The institutional consultant will be paid upon the successful completion of the tasks and
delivery of the outputs outline below.
TASK
TASKS
#
OUTPUTS
TENTATIVE CALENDAR
ANTICIPATED WORKLOAD
Desk Review Report
May 4-10, 2015
(42 man/days)
Needs Analysis Report
May 11-17, 2015
(42 man/days)
1
A desk review of school readiness
and school orientation literature at
both global and country levels
2
An analysis of school needs and
current provision
3
- Development of school orientation
programmes and tools
- Development of Teacher Training
(face-to-face & web based) Modules
Programme Books, Manuals,
Activity Books/Booklets,
Teacher Guidebooks, Family
Handbooks & Teacher Training
(face-to-face & web based)
Modules
May 18 – June 21, 2015
(180 man/days)
4
Review Meeting (Feedback from the
MoNE and UNICEF TCO on
Programmes, Tools and Modules)
Review Meeting Notes
June 22, 2015
5
Revision of school orientation
programme tools and teacher
training modules
Programme Books, Manuals,
Activity Books/Booklets,
Teacher Guidebooks, Family
Handbooks
June 23-28, 2015
(36 man/days)
6
Training of Trainers (ToT)
Report on Analysis of ToTs
June 29 – July 3, 2015
(30 man/days)
7
Development of programme
evaluation model
Programme Effectiveness
Evaluation Model
July 4-12, 2015
(60 man/days)
Review Meeting Notes
July 13, 2015
Launch of Web Based Teacher
Training Module
July 20 – August 16
(30 man/days)
Impact Evaluation Report
First two months of the
2015-2016 academic year
(60 man/days)
Review Meeting Notes
November 16, 2015
Revised Programme Books,
Manuals, Activity
Books/Booklets, Teacher
Guidebooks, Family
Handbooks
November 30, 2015
(30 man/days)
8
9
10
11
12
Review Meeting (Feedback from the
MoNE and UNICEF TCO on Program
Evaluation Model)
Preparation of Web Based Teacher
Training Module (* TTE only provides
the content for the web)
Monitoring & Evaluation of the
implementation of the school
orientation programme
Review Meeting (Feedback from the
MoNE and UNICEF TCO on the
implementation of the orientation
programmes)
Revision of the orientation
programmes based on the data
collected
TOTAL: 510 man/days
* Expected to be brief and to the point, reports produced from this assignment will be prepared in Turkish.
UNICEF will have it translated into English. The translation cost will be covered by UNICEF TOC.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 7 of 9
VI. PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:
A mix of knowledge, skills, and expertise is needed to complete the assignment. The number
of professionals and the desired qualifications needed within the insitutional consultancy
team to complete this assignment are as follows:
1. Early Childhood Education (ECE) Specialist – (1 post)
 PhD in ECE or Child Development
 Minimum 3 years of professional work experience in ECE/Child Development
 Experience in programme development and evaluation
 Working knowledge of ECE systems and practices in Turkey
2. Curriculum Development Specialist – (1 post)
 PhD in Curriculum and Instruction or relevant field
 Minimum 3 years of professional work experience in elementary education
 Experience in programme development and evaluation
 Working knowledge of primary and lower secondary education system (1st
through 8th grade) and practices in Turkey
3. Guidance and Psychological Counselling (GPC) Specialist – (2 posts)
 PhD in GPC (* one post may be at the MS level)
 Minimum 3 years of professional work experience in GPC or related field
 Experience in the area of school counseling in Turkish education system
 Working knowledge of GPC practices in early childhood, primary and lower
secondary education in Turkey
 Scholarly experience with school readiness, transition and orientation
4. Educational Measurement and Evaluation (EME) Specialist – (1 post)
 PhD in Educational Measurement and Evaluation
 Minimum 3 years of Professional experience in educational measurement and
evaluation or related field
 Experience in Turkish schools
 Working knowledge of program evaluation
 Knowledge of technology use in educational measurement and evaluation
5. Coordinator/Team Leader – (1 post)
 BS/MS in education, educational management, or administrative sciences
 Minimum 3 years of experience in managing complex projects
 Certified administrative and organisational skills
 Current knowledge of trends and best practices in education
* A workload distribution schedule that outlines the roles and responsibilites of each team member
in related to the tasks and outputs should be submitted with the proposal.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 8 of 9
VII. CRITERIA FOR JUDGING THE PROPOSALS:
Proposals submitted in response to this call will be evaluated in terms of technical quality
and financial offer. Technical quality will be evaluated using the criteria outlined below.
Program Description
- Program Background
- Turkish Education Context
- Rationale for Proposed Programs
Methodology for Completing
Tasks
- Program Development
- Program Implementation
- Program Evaluation
- Description of Deliverables
Work Plan
- Work Package
- Work Schedule
- Success Indicators
- Associated Risks & Back-up Plan
Qualifications
- Professional Background
- Professional Experience
- Relevant Prior Work
NONCOMPLIANT
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
VERY GOOD
EXCELLENT
The proposal
fails to
address the
criterion or
cannot be
assessed due
to missing or
incomplete
information.
The criterion
is
inadequately
addressed or
there are
serious
inherent
weaknesses.
The proposal
broadly
addresses the
criterion but
there are
significant
weaknesses.
The proposal
addresses the
criterion well
but with a
number of
shortcoming.
The proposal
addresses the
criterion very
well but with
a small
number of
shortcoming.
The proposal
successfully
addresses all
relevant
aspects of the
criterion; very
few minor
shortcomings
0
1-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10
0
1-6
7-10
11-15
16-18
19-20
0
1-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10
0
1-9
10-15
16-21
22-27
28-30
The financial proposals will be opened only for the technical proposals that reach or exceed
fifty (50) points out of maximum seventy (70) points. Thirty (30) points will be awarded to
the institutional consultant that presented the lowest fee for the services requested. The
remaining financial offers will receive a proportional points ([lowest bid/bid] x 30 points).
The purpose of the evaluation of Consultants’ Financial Proposals is to verify that the costs
itemized in the financial proposals adequately cover the services offered in the Institutional
Consultants' Technical Proposals.
REF: EDU/TURA/2015-A
Page 9 of 9