National Consultancy to write a preschool curriculum/educator guide for the Colombo Municipal Council (Sri Lankan Nationals ONLY))

Contract

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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, h****ow can you make a difference?

Background:

UNICEF Sri Lanka is supporting the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) in its work to upgrade and reposition 12 public preschools of the municipal council as spaces of high-quality early learning. These preschools are for families living with financial adversity. While they have numerous structural and process quality challenges to be overcome, this school community is resourceful in their commitment to offer experiences based on play, exploration and joy, and not a rigidly academic preschool program focused only on school readiness.

A curriculum that connects to children’s interests and thinking, is culturally responsive in that it validates and affirms young students’ cultures in meaningful ways and is based on latest research and evidence are some of the key constructs that make up and define the quality of a preschool curriculum. The preschool teachers of the municipal council have written up an educator’s guide (interchangeably referred to as the curriculum) that documents the activity choices they can make in delivering learning experiences for young children. This document has several prominent strengths in its conceptualization, including the role of play, child-centeredness, interactions of children and teacher quality and characteristics. It explains at length on ‘what’ children should learn in their preschool setting, but it could elaborate more on ‘how’ children learn. Therefore, this document needs significant improvements to - clarify all the necessary components of a curriculum, making it teacher-friendly and usable, and reflect the ambitious goals indicated in an organizationally coherent way.

More specifically, this educator’s guide/curriculum needs reification of or insertions of the following components:

1. Beliefs about children
2. Discerning how children learn
3. Engaging families
4. Individualizing for diverse learners
5. Teacher planning
6. Organizing time and the environment
7. Using learning centres
8. Assessment

With an appreciation for the science behind how the brain develops, how that development relates to learning, and the settings and contexts that are conducive to learning and development (Immordino-Yang et al., 2018), this curriculum must be designed to be an instrument that can help educators create learning environments which are genuinely democratic: learning spaces that embrace the voices of children and is committed to build an authentic learning community.

Therefore, as part of our support to the CMC, UNICEF aims to hire a consultant to help write these sections, using content it has previously sourced from technical reviews of curriculum products from Sri Lanka commissioned by UNICEF, to have an evidence-based curriculum that foster active, democratic, child-centered, culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate environments through a playful pedagogy.

This curriculum will be written in Sinhala and will be translated in to Tamil and English.

Under the supervision of the Education Officer, the consultant will be responsible for providing high quality support to develop the curriculum and facilitate its introduction to its end users.

Activities and Tasks:

1. Review existing content of the curriculum of the CMC and make revisions as necessary
2. Write new content for the curriculum based on an organizational structure provided by UNICEF
3. Consolidate new and existing content in to one instrument with the througline of an evidence-based curriculum that foster active, democratic, child-centered, culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate environments through a playful pedagogy.
4. Present this consolidated curriculum to the teachers and other external reviewers nominated by UNICEF, and collate their contributions.
5. Conduct a curriculum validation meeting at which the draft curriculum is reviewed by the teachers and administrators of the CMC.
6. Revise the draft curriculum document and incorporate the comments made at the validation workshop.
7. Design a training to introduce the curriculum to its end users who are the teachers the municipal council, to provide them with the skills and knowledge to use it in their classrooms.
8. Deliver the training.

Proposed methodology of the curriculum review and development process:

• The consultant should work closely with the Education Officer of UNICEF and the teachers/monitoring officers of the CMC.
• The methodology undertaken during the validation should be highly participatory and to include group discussions and plenary sessions.

Work relationships:

The following working relationships will be required:

• With the Education Officer, who will provide overall guidance and direction for the assignment

• With the Preschool Monitoring Officers of the municipal council who will provide specific guidance on context and content for the assignment

  Outputs/Deliverables:

• Preschool curriculum

• Agenda and all materials/handouts of the training program
• Delivery of the training program
• A report with recommendations for follow-up activities by the CMC/UNICEF

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

Education: Education: Tertiary qualifications – graduate or post graduate degree in a relevant field

Experience:

Essential -

• At least 10 years providing advisory services on early learning in Sri Lanka
• Proven evidence of evaluating and developing teacher resources including curriculum and lessons plans
• Experience in delivery of adult training
• Experience of working within the Sri Lankan education or early learning system
• Exceptional writing skills in Sinhala

Desirable -

• Experience working with government agencies in Sri Lanka on early learnng
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or nonprofit in early learning

Language: Fluency in Sinhala and English

Tentative start date: 25 June 2021

How to apply

Please complete your profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system.

Please indicate your ability, availability and fee/rate (in LKR) to undertake the terms of reference above. Indicate an all-inclusive fee (including lump sum travel and subsistence costs, as applicable) to undertake the tasks in the Terms of reference.

Duty station - Colombo

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.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

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.

If you think this Consultancy might be for you, please take the time to review our Country Office Mutual Agreements before you apply.

If you believe you can team member that can uphold these everyday, then we look forward to receiving and reviewing your application.