National Consultant for promoting use of technology in Education Programmes (Open to Myanmar Nationals Only)

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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

UNICEF Myanmar

Background & Purpose of the Assignment:

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does. This includes the right to education, which requires action with over 12 million school aged children in Myanmar in a learning crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an almost continuous nationwide school closure from March 2020 to June 2021. Continued disruptions occur with protests, attacks and explosions taking place in and around education spaces, so it is unlikely that safe access to education will occur for the many children in the immediate future. Additional disruptions continue such as the annual threats of floods during rainy season, ongoing risk of Covid-19, and other events which may exacerbate the situation further. With extended learning losses, there is an urgent need for all children to be able to access safe learning opportunities to ensure they do not fall even further behind, and to help them to catch up when they are able to access full or partial returns to the classroom. The need is particularly acute for the most disadvantaged children, who have little access to private and/or online learning opportunities. UNICEF Myanmar is promoting access to quality education through no, low-, and high-tech approaches. During the next year, the UNICEF office aims to significantly expand access to learning using education technology.

Scope of Work: UNICEF is seeking a consultant to support UNICEF’s efforts to leverage both high and low technology approaches for improved access and strengthened quality of education opportunities, with particular emphasis on administration of the Learning Passport platform.

Under the management of the Education Specialist, and the guidance of the Regional Deployment Specialist for Learning Passport, the overall purpose of the individual consultant is to:

• Support the UNICEF Myanmar Country Office to deploy Learning Passport as part of emergency and development programming to improve access and quality of education, including: o Provide technical expertise in regard to back-end management of the Learning Passport platform o Manage content and user experience for the Learning Passport o Support monitoring and reporting related to Learning Passport, including by developing use of dashboards and analytics o Identify challenges, support troubleshooting, and otherwise support the good functioning of the platform • Assist in strategy and implementation of technology approaches to enhance access and quality of education, including and beyond the Learning Passport o Contribute technical inputs to medium- and long-term strategy papers for use of technology in education o Support reviews, proposals, and pilots of use of education technology, including associated new learning and teaching resources o Build capacity of partner organizations and communities for safe and effective use of technology • Contribute to knowledge management of the Education Section o Create dashboards to monitor status of DCTs, Program Visits, and other Education Section activities o Visualize data related to accomplishments of the Education Section

Duty Station:

Home-based/ Remote with travel inside Myanmar.

The consultant will be expected to travel during the duration of this contract to the following locations in Myanmar: Yangon, Ayeyarwaddy, Bago, and Magway Regions, and Shan State. The consultant’s travel costs will be reimbursed based on actual travel undertaken.

Duration of the Contract:

12 months. Flexible hours. Delivery-based. Consultant manages his/her own time.

Description of Assignment:

Task 1:

• Inception meeting online. • Identify key milestones in consultancy • Develop work plan for consultancy period

Deliverable 1: Work plan for 12-month period

Timeline: 2 weeks

Task 2:

• Contribute to back-end management of users in Learning Passport (LP) pilot • Provide capacity building for pilot participants • Assist in monitoring and data collection related to the pilot

Deliverable 2: Presentation on mid-term pilot status

Timeline: 2 weeks

Task 3:

• Provide ongoing inputs to solve technical challenges arising during the pilot • Contribute to collection, translation, and analysis of data during the pilot • Extract dashboards and visual information about use of LP during pilot • Provide technical inputs to presentation and brief with findings of the pilot

Deliverable 3: Presentation with key data and visual information from pilot

Timeline: 1 month

Task 4:

• Support back-end management of the Learning Passport to be updated based on pilot recommendations • Make any additional technical changes related to user experience following pilot recommendations • Prepare inputs to monitoring of LP ahead of expanded use

Deliverable 4: Presentation of updates to learning platform following pilot recommendations

Timeline: 1 month

Task 5:

• Based on pilot findings and monitoring data, identify key capacity gaps related to ICT/education technology use among partners and facilitators • Conduct survey or other assessment to identify key gaps related to ICT/use of technology for education, if additional information needed • Map available courses and content that can support building capacity related to key gaps identified

Deliverable 5: Presentation on capacity gaps and existing capacity building materials related to education technology

Timeline: 1 month

Task 6:

• Update findings on key capacity gaps with any further monitoring / user analytics after expanded use of LP • Develop a brief proposal for how to adapt or newly develop capacity building content (trainings, courses, videos, IEC, etc.) to address key capacity gaps on use of education technology/ICT • Present the proposal and an associated timeline related to building capacity for use of education technology among partners and facilitators

Deliverable 6: Presentation on proposal and timeline for capacity building related to education technology

Timeline: 1 month

Task 7:

• Contribute to carrying out the capacity building plan, including through adaptation or development of courses, videos, or other channels

• Design and do small pilot to test adapted materials • Propose methods to improve user understand and experience of capacity building content (for example, this could be a structured sequence of courses, helping users to match their interests and available learning resources, etc.)

Deliverable 7: Newly developed and/or adapted capacity building content

Timeline: 1 month

Task 8:

• Review monitoring and analytics of user data after expanded use of LP has been ongoing for several months • Prepare visual information, lessons learned, and any recommendations for changes required • Present information and findings prepared above

Deliverable 8: Presentation on status of LP, focused on strengths and lessons learned

Timeline: 1 month

Task 9:

• Collect information about types of technology used in education in Myanmar (among UNICEF IPs or beyond) • Work with regional and HQ focals for education technology to collect examples of education technology in other countries • Present a summary of education technology use in Myanmar and other similar countries

Deliverable 9: Presentation of education technology use in Myanmar and other countries

Timeline: 1 month

Task 10:

• Review and generate monitoring and analytics about the content available on LP and their use • Develop tables and visual information about what content is most and least used, disaggregated by type of users. Develop further tables/visualizations as appropriate. • Present the information to Myanmar Education Team

Deliverable 10: Presentation of status of LP, focused on content

Timeline: 1 month

Task 11:

• Review use of education technology in UNICEF education programmes • In discussion with Myanmar education team, identify key bottlenecks to improved use • Present bottlenecks and suggestions for how to reduce them

Deliverable 11: Presentation on improving use of education technology in UNICEF education programs

Timeline: 1 month

Task 12:

• Prepare information on number of users and their analytics from Learning Passport • Develop a summary of key challenges and successes in education technology • Present the status of LP and overall education technology challenges and successes

Deliverable 12: Presentation on status of LP and education technology

Timeline: 1 month

Task 13:

• Compile achievements, challenges, and lessons learned over the 1 year period • Develop a brief report with a summary of achievements, challenges, and lessons learned

Deliverable 13: Brief report on achievements, challenges, and lessons learned over 12-month period

Timeline: 1 month

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

• Master’s Degree or above in Education, ICT, Engineering, Social Science, or related field.
• Minimum of 1 years’ experience in supporting the use of technology in education.
• Proven capacity in ICT, especially coding, administration of websites, and/or database management
• Good knowledge of the education sector in Myanmar
• Previous experience teaching or otherwise building capacity for ICT is an asset
• Knowledge of UNICEF’s digital education platform would be an added advantage
• Skills related to data collection, monitoring, and analysis preferred

Please complete the following "Expression of Interest Form" and ensure to attach in your applications: LP Consultant_EOI_final.doc

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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.

Apply now

Added 8 months ago - Updated 8 months ago - Source: unicef.org