National Consultant to provide IT support for 36 school units in Bacau county/Romania

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.

How can you make a difference?

Background and Rationale

Schools and kindergartens have been closed in the spring of 2020 and have been as safely as possible reopened (first in June 2020, for the graduation examinations, and a second time, at the beginning of the current school year). The education system was significantly impacted by the COVID crisis as it pushed a rapid shift to online teaching/learning. Within this process, there were therefore multiple elements impeding access of all children to distance/online education.

While, in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, the teaching paradigm changed rapidly, the lack of strategy and coordination at national level to take unitary measures to coordinate implementation was one of the key challenges; as of today, local interventions are developed very differently nationwide, depending on the teachers’ capacity or the parent’s availability to provide support.

Considering the challenges generated by the COVID 19 pandemic, UNICEF launched a rapid assessment, aiming to capture specifically key bottlenecks impeding universal access of children to distance / online education. Quantitative and qualitative results from the consultations carried out in Bacau were available end of March, pointing out at several elements impeding immediate access of children to education:

a) Lack of IT infrastructure and internet connectivity in the case of teachers and children (IT devices, license, high speed connectivity, etc.)

b) Limited digital skills of teachers/children/parents;

c) Insufficient educational resources aligned with the current curriculum for all educational cycles;

d) Limited autonomy and motivation of children/teachers to access online learning.

e) Insufficient process guidance from the Ministry of Education.

While digital education is foreseen as the key solution during the current pandemic, it also has the potential to widen the equity gap. Four types of digital inequalities could influence the equality of opportunity in this situation: 1) physical access to digital infrastructure; 2) utilization – reduced or insufficiently addressed and developed digital skills of children, parents and teachers; 3) access to adequate educational resources for every educational cycle to comply with the new curriculum; 4) lack of consistent/unitary national planning for implementing the transfer to digital learning/teaching platforms. The larger picture is even more complicated as the system of education is in a dire need for online student evaluation policies and tools.

Although the picture may be different from one community to another and no universal solutions exist, we expect that the current crisis exacerbates existing inequalities if no articulate actions are put in place. Evidence tells us that school dropout may increase as children already at risk of drop out lose connection with schools and their peers, experiencing increased lack of motivation and autonomy to pursue their education.

In response to this situation, several short term measures have the potential to improve the access to and the quality of the online educational services, including: 1) identifying solutions for funding and purchasing or free distribution of IT equipment for low income families; 2) developing proper educational content for the on line environment 3) facilitate the transfer of digital skills and support the use of technology for educational purposes.

Currently the second wave of COVID pandemic is felt also in Romania, with increased number of infections daily and increased number of fatalities. Even if schools were reopened at the beginning of the current school year, in Bucharest and a couple other cities of Romania they were closed again. Depending on the pandemic evolution in Romania more schools or even all are at risk of being closed again.

Given the current context and the national decision for all schools to do online education, there is a need to provide school units with IT assistance and support to facilitate access to online education.

Purpose

Provide IT assistance and support to 36 school units from Bacau county to facilitate access to online learning (max. 10 hours/school/month).

The type of support provided should be tailored to the individual needs of the school units.

Geographical coverage

Bacau County - 36 school units involved in UNICEF modelling in education (list to be provided by UNICEF team).

Major duties and responsibilities of the IT Consultant

Working under the supervision of the Programme Specialist – Local Implementation, the contractor will work in close collaboration with UNICEF along the whole process. The expert/s will provide specific assistance in accordance with the need of each school (max. 10 hours/school/month). County coordinators from Bacau should facilitate communication of the IT expert/s with each school team. The timeline for providing IT assistance to each school unit should be commonly agreed between each school team (including school director, teachers and auxiliary staff) and the IT expert/s, within the timeline of the current contract.

The specific IT assistance and support may involve:

• Provide individualized support to the school staff, in accordance with their digital skills

(tutorials, online meetings, assistance by phone, etc.);

• Organize training/workshops on basic digital skills required to facilitate access to online education;
• Create individual accounts for teachers and students and provide advice on how to ensure they are used safely;
• Make sure that the minimum requirements for online education are in place (upgrade systems and install missing components if necessary) ;
• Install educational online platforms and provide online training or support to teachers, upon demand;

Expected results, deliverable and deadline

The consultancy is proposed for the period January – February 2021.

The contractor is expected to produce 1 final report, mentioning the type of assistance requested and provided to the 36 school units, making references to the key IT bottlenecks encountered and suggesting potential solutions to address them. The report will be submitted in Romanian language by the end of February 2021.

Payment

• Payments will be made monthly, based on the no. of hours performed.

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

• Professional experience in the provision of IT support and assistance;
• Flexibility to adapt to the various requirements and schools;
• Good communication skills in Romanian, so that the technical information is adapted and translated into accessible information.
• Knowledge of the IT online platform already used by MoE would be considered an advantage.
• Ability to cooperate with UNICEF specialists in the fields identified; good communication and interpersonal skills; excellent organisational skills and be able to cope with tight deadlines;
• Availability to work during the period January – February 2021;
• The possibility to provide face to face assistance (under specific circumstances, with respect of safety regulations) would be considered an advantage.

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.

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.

Application Procedure:

Applications should include (advertisement also available at

https://www.ungm.org/public/Notice/118947):

• A brief cover letter in English;
• A recent CV in English;
• A financial offer as per attached template* Financial template_Individual consultant_IT support to schools.docx, specifying the requested gross daily fee in RON, taking into consideration that the Consultant will be responsible for paying all his/her due income taxes as per Romanian fiscal legislation. Applications which do not include the financial offer will not be considered.

Note: The Consultant will sign a health statement prior to taking the assignment and the designation form will be completed. Travel costs to project sites and attending project meetings (situations when the Consultant is authorized to have access to UNICEF transport) will be covered by UNICEF outside the contract. Payments will be made monthly, based on the number of days worked and, on the activity, report signed by supervisor.

Selection Procedure:

Awarding of the contract will be made based on an interview. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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.