National consultancy: To conduct in-depth quality review of existing ECE canters in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan ( Afghan Nationals only) for 70 working days

Job no: 561166

Position type: Consultant

Location: Afghanistan Division/Equivalent: Kathmandu(ROSA)

School/Unit: Afghanistan

Department/Office: Kabul, Afghanistan

Categories: Operations

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Education

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the Education Quality Specialist P3, the purpose of the assignment is to complete an in-depth review of the 200+ ECE centers currently operating in the Eastern region of Afghanistan. The review will span the policy documents, implementing partner, teachers, learning supplies and learning environment, classroom observations, ECE administrative structure and shuras, parents and communities, as well as current monitoring and support practices of the program.

The main objective of this review is to generate feasible and actionable recommendations for quality improvements to the current ECE program, to be operationalized by UNICEF in the future (beyond the scope of the consultancy). Those recommendations would guide a possible future expansion of the ECE program (beyond the scope of this exercise, and beyond the scope of current funding support to UNICEF) and define applicable ECE standards for Afghanistan in case of new funding opportunities and donor interest.

UNICEF is the executing agency for the World Bank funded Education Emergency Response in Afghanistan (EERA) project, which is implemented from October 2022 to March 2024 (18 months). Under this project, one sub-component aims at doing a quality review of running ECE centers in the Eastern region of Afghanistan, in order to formulate recommendations for quality improvements. This is to support UNICEF and its implementing partner to design an improvement strategy to improve existing centers, and to implement it in the future (this would be beyond the scope of EERA) or to apply it to future centers (also beyond the scope of EERA).

The scope of the work for the consultant would involve the following:

•  A rapid study of documents existing in Afghanistan on ECE/ECD (existing policy documents from previous Governments, previous work done in the past by UNICEF) in order to outline applicable standards in the Afghan context.
•  In close collaboration with the UNICEF Kabul Office focal points, and the Jalalabad Office focal points, after reviewing implementing partner program document, description of the ECE package offered, monitoring reports from Technical Extenders or UNICEF Zonal Office staff: design a plan to visit a sample of the existing centres and a methodology to collect the necessary information, including questionnaires, focus group discussion or key informant interview questions for relevant stakeholders, observation tools for classroom visits, simple monitoring checklists for observing the overall classroom and learning environment.
•  Conduct visits to an agreed sample of centres and conduct agreed observations, surveys, focus group discussions and interviews of all relevant stakeholders to collect the evidence needed to capture the realities of the ground in terms of enabling environment, teaching and learning practices, supplies, existing technical support and monitoring practices and capacities. The sample size will be determined for each province as per adequate statistical standards to ensure representativity.
•  Write a report to compile all information captured, highlight the approach followed, good practices and results achieved and formulate feasible recommendations for improvement, for the enabling environment, supplies, trainings, teaching practices, monitoring and ongoing technical support etc. Those recommendations will be articulated for the implementing partner, for UNICEF staff, Technical Extenders, Third Party Monitors etc.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

1. Inception report comprising:

•  A review of past ECE policy documents, previous UNICEF work on ECE, existing implementing partners documents, program documents, ECE package being implemented, including supplies for ECE schools, teacher recruitment and training etc.
•  A plan for visits to a representative sample of ECE centres for each of the 4 provinces,
•  A methodology for information and data collection to assess the quality of those existing ECE centres in the Eastern region of Afghanistan, comprising the design of all quantitative tools, checklists and classroom observation tools for data collection, as well as the design of a qualitative method with FGDs and KIIs for all stakeholders involved and beneficiaries: implementing partner, UNICEF focal points in Jalalabad office, UNICEF technical extenders who monitor the centres, teachers, shuras, parents, community members, and any other relevant stakeholder.

2. Two progress reports based on mission notes from the visits to the ECE centres, data and information collected from surveys/FGDs/KIIs.

3. Final report including analysis of data and information collected, assessment of findings, highlighting good practices and recommendations for quality improvements of the centres.

•  Academic qualification: A Masters’ Degree in Education, Development Studies, or Social Sciences or its equivalent. Disciplines: Education, primary-education, ECD, Social studies, development studies, gender studies, language, or related fields
•  At least 5 years’ experience in pre-primary education, ECE/ECD, early learning
•  Proven experience of reviewing/designing ECE policies and programs, ECE learning environment frameworks and training materials
•  Proven experience implementing or evaluating ECE/ECD programs
•  Experience with the Afghan context (for example through previous consultancies) is an advantage

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

•  Required Experience and Skills:
•  At least 5 years’ experience in the review, design, evaluation or implementation of Early Childhood Education/ Early Childhood Development programs in the humanitarian sector.
•  Experience or proven knowledge in evaluation design, quantitative and qualitative studies, research studies, especially in education, early learning, early childhood development.
•  Previous experience evaluating, assessing or developing ECE/ECD programs or strategies, or NGO-implemented programs in the field of education.
•  Some prior experience with UNICEF or UN agency program planning is an advantage.
•  Technical skills and knowledge:
•  Ability to conduct both quantitative surveys and qualitative research, needs assessment of education programs and strong analytical skills.
•  Strong skills in conducting participatory consultations with diverse groups of people, especially on issues related to early education and childhood development
•  Strong interpersonal, presentation and writing skills.
•  Knowledge of education and gender issues in Afghanistan regions and familiarity with UNICEF policies, practices, plans, and approaches is an added advantage.
•  Closes May 05 2023National consultancy: To conduct in-depth quality review of existing ECE canters in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan ( Afghan Nationals only) for 70 working days in Afghanistan

  For a few years, UNICEF has been implementing an ECE program based on the Khurasan Easy Learning curriculum in 4 provinces of the Eastern Region of Afghanistan. Currently, there are a total of 222 such centres open, with the following provincial breakdown: 25 in Nuristan, 54 in Laghman, 50 in Kunar and 93 in Nangarhar. The pre-primary course is targeted at 6-years old children, lasts 9 months per academic year, and aims at ensuring children enter Grade 1 with adequate school-readiness.