Consultancy for Development of a national standards and curriculum for nurseries in Egypt, 6 months (Nationals only)
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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, care
Egypt is committed to sustainable economic growth through establishing and maintaining a competitive edge in both the region and globally. This goal is underpinned by the country’s Sustainable Development Strategy: Vision 2030. Human capital development is key to realising this ambitious plan. To be ready for this challenge, the nation’s children need to not only survive childhood, but also acquire the foundational skills that have their roots in the critical early days and years of a child’s healthy growth and development in a caring and nurturing environment provided by their family and caregivers.
The right to a child’s development has been accepted and embraced by the international community. The Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly highlights the importance of early child development, saying that a child has a right to develop to “the maximum extent possible.” Since 1990, governments have been encouraged to develop their education systems in order to promote and facilitate education for all children. Lessons learned from the Education For All movement and the Millennium Development Goals indicate that, despite the significant progress achieved, educational expansion does not automatically benefit those most in need with regard to ensuring quality education opportunities.
Science has demonstrated that quality early childhood interventions early in life are important because they help mitigate the impact of adverse early experiences which if not addressed lead to poor health, poor educational attainment, economic dependency, increased violence and crime, greater substance abuse and depression, all of which add to the cost and burden in society. Based on the growing body of neuro-scientific research and a new understanding of the complete well-being of the child, early child development is increasingly being put on the agenda for children’s rights.
The early childhood period in Egypt encompasses three distinct phases: from ‘conception to birth’ and from ‘birth to 3 years’, followed by the ‘preschool and pre-primary years (3 years to 5 years). It is estimated that 40 per cent (or 5.2 million) children under 5 years in Egypt are at risk of not fulfilling their full developmental potential, due to risks of poverty (37% of children under five are living in multidimensional poverty), poor nutrition (22% of children under five are stunted) and a lack of access to early enriching opportunities (47% of children 3-5 years old have access to an organized early childhood education).
Early Childhood Development (ECD) is one of the national priorities in Egypt and is an integral part of its National Development Plan: Vision 2030. Egypt has made notable progress towards improving early childhood care and education (ECCD) services as a powerful equalizer that can help narrow the gaps in opportunities for young children; address gender inequities and promote better outcomes for young children. Currently, the following national initiatives are on-going:
Initiatives led by the Ministry for Social Solidarity (MOSS) include:
- The National Early Childhood Development Program is launched to scale up access to quality nurseries serving children under 4 years old. The main objectives of the program are:
- To provide quality educational services to children between the ages (0-3 years), in accordance with local and international quality standards to realize cognitive, emotional, and psychological development of children
- To upgrade professional performance of workforce and managerial effectiveness in existing nurseries affiliated to NGOs
- To establish new nursery models to expand coverage and access while responding to the needs of the Egyptian society
- To improve performance of the Ministry of Social Solidarity staff to monitor the application of the national standards and the curriculum
- To support the private sector with soft loans to establish new nurseries as small income-generating projects.
- The National Strategy for Early Childhood Development developed by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM)
- The new curriculum for KGs serving children age 4-5 years, guided by the Life Skills and Citizenship Education (LSCE) Framework, developed and mainstreamed by Ministry of Education and Technical education (MOETE)
MOSS has taken the following major steps to implement its National Early Childhood Development Program, particularly to strengthen the enabling environment for quality assurance and to improve performance of caregivers.
- The national standards for nurseries have been drafted (6 domains, 27 standards, 184 indicators). The main domains are the physical environment, service providers, Health, psychological, and social care programs, learning and development, community development, and effective management.
- Two child activities manuals were drafted. The first manual targets children age 0-2 years old and the second targets children age 3-4 years old.
- Training packages for facilitators and managers of nurseries are drafted
MOSS, supported by UNICEF, will work on reviewing and finalizing the draft national standards for nurseries; draft activity manuals; and draft training packages for service providers. The consultant will also develop the learning and development framework / curriculum, facilitators guides and monitoring and evaluation tools.
The process is led by MOSS, with the following milestones planned:
- National standards for nurseries reviewed and finalized
- Early learning and development framework for children under 4 years old reviewed in alignment with the learning framework for children age 4-5 years developed by MOE
- National curriculum for nurseries and facilitator’s guides developed, activity manuals reviewed and finalized in alignment with the early learning and development framework and in alignment with the national curriculum for KGs
- Training packages for facilitators and managers reviewed and finalized and master trainers trained.
To support MOSS throughout this process, professional expertise and technical assistance will be provided to review and finalize the early learning framework, national curriculum, guides and activity manuals and training package for facilitators
How can you make a difference?
The overall purpose of this assignment is to support MOSS endeavors to improve the quality of ECD services in nurseries serving children under 4 years old. The specific objectives are:
- To review and finalize the national standards for nurseries including the early learning and development framework for children under 4 years old
- To review draft activity manuals based on the early learning and development framework and consistent with the local environment of Egyptian society; and develop the national curriculum and facilitator’s guides
- To review and finalize the draft training package for service providers and train 50 master trainers
- To develop monitoring and evaluation procedures and tools to assess learning and development.
The assignment will be led by MOSS, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders and supported by UNICEF. A lead national consultant, who will assign experts in relevant areas as required (ECD national standards or curriculum development)to support the accomplishment of the assignment, will be responsible for coordination of the team work and submission of deliverables in accordance to UNICEF and MOSS standards
The lead consultant will work closely with MOSS, UNICEF and will communicate with other stakeholders as required. The process and methodology will include five phases:
Phase 1. Inception:
- In-depth review of available drafts on the national standards for nurseries, child activities manuals, and training packages for service providers drafted by MOSS. Other related documents include: KG new curriculum developed by MOE, ECD national strategy developed by NCCM as well as international experiences in curriculum development for children under 4 years old
- Preliminary discussions with MOSS, MOE and UNICEF. This will facilitate a common in-depth understanding of the conceptual framework and adjusting the methodology, tools and resources.
- Field visits, as required, to selected districts to conduct interviews with key officials, service providers, and caregivers to better understand the Egyptian context.
- Draft the inception report (deliverable 1), including the details of the methodology and a detailed action plan, to be presented to and approved by MOSS and UNICEF. The proposed methodology needs to be appropriate to capture all agreed ingredients necessary for development of the learning and development framework and the curriculum.
- The report will be submitted in Arabic
Phase 2: Development of national standards
- Facilitate consultative meetings/workshops with stakeholders organized by MOSS
- Review and finalize existing draft of the national standards including all domains of service provision in nurseries that are consistent with the local environment of Egyptian society.
- Review the learning and development standards and develop a comprehensive learning and development framework, for children under 4 years old, based on learner’s needs, expectations of the society, and on the life skills-based education approach adopted by Ministry of Education.
- Finalize the learning and development framework and national standards for nurseries after incorporating comments from MOSS and UNICEF and facilitating a validation meeting / workshop to be organized by MOSS (deliverable 2)
Phase 3: Development of national curriculum
- Facilitate consultative meetings/workshop with stakeholders, to be organized by MOSS
- Develop a curricular framework based on the early learning and development framework: formulation of curriculum goals, objectives and domains
- Review the draft child activities manuals, identify and organize learning contents / learning experiences, and facilitator’s guide to deliver learning activities.
- Develop monitoring and evaluation approaches, methodology and tools
- Finalize the curriculum package after incorporating all comments from MOSS and UNICEF and facilitating a validation meeting/workshop to be organized by MOSS (deliverable 3)
- All deliverables will be submitted in Arabic
Phase 4: Develop a training package for facilitators and train master trainers (deliverable 4)
- Develop a training package for facilitators
Train 50 master trainers (2 workshops). MOSS will organize the workshops with support from UNICEF
ACTIVITIES, DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES, PLUS BUDGET PER DELIVERABLE
The duration of the consultancy will be for a period of 6 months between October 2020 – March 2021. The lead consultant will assign assistant experts in relevant fields of national standards, curriculum and training as required.
Under the guidance of the Early Childhood Development Manager, the consultancy will include the following tasks:
- Desk review of the relevant documents related to early learning and development frameworks and curricula for children under 4 years old, and tapping on international experience
- Meet with different stakeholders
- Prepare inception report detailing the methodology and timeframe for undertaking the assignment.
- Finalize the national standards for nurseries including early learning and development framework for children under 4 years old
- Develop national curriculum for nurseries, evaluation mechanisms and tools, facilitator guides and finalize the draft child activities manuals in alignment with the early learning and development framework and the new curriculum for KGs
- Finalize the draft training packages for facilitators
- Train 50 master trainers to support rolling out of the curriculum nationwide
- Facilitate consultation meetings/workshops throughout the process to support the deliverables review and validation process.
- Prepare reports on validation workshops, final report on the assignment, other brief progress reports as required
MOSS and UNICEF will organize the workshops and cover cost of participants. The consultant will be responsible for technical inputs and facilitation of workshops.
All deliverables will be submitted in Arabic language
No
DELIVERABLES
ESTIMATED Time Schedule
(6 months)
Duration
PAYMENT
1
2
3
4
5
6
Weeks
1
An inception report with detailed activities and time schedule (Arabic)
X
2 weeks
20%
2
Submission of final version of national standards including early learning and development framework (Arabic).
Report on validation workshop (Arabic)
X
X
6 weeks
20%
3
Submission of final version of curriculum framework, learning content, facilitators guides, child activity manuals and evaluation mechanisms and tools (Arabic). Report on validation workshop (Arabic)
X
X
X
10 weeks
40%
4
Submission of final version of training package and training 50 master trainers (Arabic)
Report on the training workshops (Arabic)
X
X
6 weeks
20%
100%
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
For Lead consultant / assistant experts:
- Advanced university degree in social sciences or related technical field such as child development, and childcare policies and national programs.
- 10 years or more of experience in developing national standards, curricula, and developing training programs in the field of early childhood development
Understanding of the relevant global and national policies and plans relating to early childhood care and education.
Experience working with UN and in MENA region/developing countries will be an asset.
Proficiency in Arabic technical writing skills.
- Experience in facilitating national meetings and workshops
- Strong analytical and conceptual skills.
- Effective communication, facilitation and advocacy skills.
Condition of work
- The consultant will assign experts in relevant areas of expertise to support the accomplishment of the assignment.
- MOSS and UNICEF will organize the workshops
- Work station: free lance
- Laptops, computers and office supplies are not provided by UNICEF
- Payment upon submission of quality deliverables approved by MOSS and UNICEF.
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.
The functional competencies required for this post are...
View our competency framework at
http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
Added 3 years ago
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Updated 2 years ago
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Source:
unicef.org
