Individual Consultancy - (International consultant) to support the Educational Statistics Review

Contract

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ADVERT - International consultant to support the Educational Statistics Review

Ministry of Education. Male’ Maldives

Reference Number: TOR/2022/32

Background and rationale:

Collection, compilation and dissemination of statistics are an important component of a holistic system of education, which helps in making the whole system accountable. However, with every change in the system, the data collected and disseminated needs to be reviewed and revised in order to streamline the data to reflect those changes. Furthermore, periodic reviews of the data need to be conducted so that the data can be evaluated and problems found are solved in good time. This shall ensure that the data disseminated is current, valid and effective in usage. With the advent of the Education Act in the Maldives in 2000, it becomes mandatory for the Ministry of Education to manage the data in a systematic manner and produce timely and accurate data and to make the data publicly available.

The Ministry of Education recognizes that the current data has significant gaps, discrepancies and that the data management practices, documentation and dissemination need to be reviewed and improved. Hence, the Ministry of Education wishes to seek technical support to undertake the task.

Purpose of the consultancy:

The Ministry of Education wishes to seek high quality technical support to:

1. review the educational statistics of the Ministry of Education for past five (05) years
2. review the current statistical yearbook and resolve the discrepancies that can be found in the data in the yearbook and in other sources.
3. develop a new design and template of the statistical yearbook to accommodate the new changes brought with the implementation of Education Act and alignment with SDG 4. This shall be a user-friendly design.
4. develop a summary dashboard consisting of the most useful statistics from the statistical yearbook.

Provide a 4-day basic course for the relevant MOE staff on education statistics with a focus on data collection, analysis and calculating education indicators to track SDG 4.

Duty station: In Male’ Maldives.

Supervisor: Mazeena Jameel, program specialist, Education and Skills Development.

Ministry of Education will facilitate in the provision of relevant statistical raw data of the past years and all logistical support. The consultant will work in collaboration with the Policy Planning section of the Ministry of Education, in Male’ Maldives.

Major tasks to be undertaken and deliverables

Major tasks

Deliverables

• Review and analyse the current statistical yearbook of the Ministry of Education and identify the strengths, the data gaps and areas of improvement. This includes review and analysis of the educational statistics of the past five (05) years.

• Produce a summary of findings using appropriate infographics.

• A report on the findings and infographics.

• To be done remotely

• Develop a 4-day basic course for the relevant MOE staff on education statistics with a focus on data collection, analysis and calculating education indicators to track and report on SDG 4.

• Training package/content

• To be done remotely

• Provide the 4-day basic course for the relevant MOE staff on education statistics. (The purpose of training the staff is to enable them to engage with the consultant in the rest of the consultancy and support the gathering of data and identify the relevant indicators.)

• 4-day training delivered.

• A brief 2-page report on recommendations on future trainings for the MOE team.

• In Male’/Maldives

• In collaboration with the trained staff, conduct meetings with relevant stakeholders and collect relevant information on additional educational indicators that the stakeholders would like to see in the statistics yearbook.

• A list of additional indicators that need to go into the statistical yearbook, identified from the consultations, SDGs and the Education Act 2020.

• In Male’/Maldives

• In discussion with MOE officials, and trained staff Identify indicators on SDG4, indicators to report to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) and Education Act that need to be included in the statistics yearbook.

• In Male’/Maldives

• Develop a printable, soft copy working template for compilation and analysis of the collected statistics, including the statistics for UIS (using Ms Excel, Google Spreadsheet, SPSS, or any other relevant software)

• Produce the 2022 annual statistics yearbook via the template that is created and share the template with MOE for feedback. The consultant will be working remotely with regular communication with MOE designated staff.

• An editable template for collection of the data.

• Am editable template to provide a brief analysis of the indicators.

• The latest version of annual statistics book for 2022

• Remotely

• Develop a summary dashboard of the most useful education data from the yearbook and present to the MOE. Engage with MOE remotely to obtain their feedback

• A dashboard linked to the new template developed

• Remotely

Estimated duration of the consultancy:

60 working days between November 2022 – February 2023.

Official travel involved and duty station: One trip to Male’, Maldives for the consultations with stakeholders and in-person training. The consultant will be based at the Ministry of Education for the activities to be done in country.

Qualifications required of the consultants.

• A postgraduate degree with at least 7 years of experience in education statistics.
• At least 5-7 years of experience in producing data for decision-making.
• Good command in spoken and written English.
• Ability to work with diverse groups of people

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UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.