Support the Education Quality Assurance Department in implementation of the Grade 8 National Assessment, Phnom-Penh, Cambodia, 40 days over 7 months

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, a fair chance

UNICEF started operation in Cambodia in 1952 and opened first country office in 1973 in Phnom Penh. More information on what we do in Cambodia is available at https://www.unicef.org/cambodia/.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose

The overall objective of the consultancy is to assess the current learning levels of grade 8 students in Cambodia. Compared with the 2017 assessment results, the consultancy also aims to analyze to what extent learning performance has changed over the past 5 years. In doing so the study will examine any loss/gains arising from school closures and/or lack of access and/or usage of distance learning modalities. This will be done by providing technical assistance to the Education Quality Assurance Department (EQAD) for the grade 8 national assessment. It will also, to the extent possible, compare and analyze the grade 8 results with the grade 6 national learning assessment and Learning loss report published in 2022

Work Assignment

The outputs of the consultancy will be used to increase knowledge of student learning outcomes and student learning loss during and after the COVID19 pandemic. The outputs will be further used to stimulate dialogue among the CDPF partners, the education sector stakeholders, and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports to identify priority areas for interventions going forward. Under the overall supervision of the UNICEF Chief of Education, with inputs from the CDPF partners, and direct technical guidance by a UNICEF Education Specialist in close collaboration with the Education Quality Assurance

Department, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Identify and analyze existing data sets that can support additional analysis on student learning loss/gain, such as the previous grade 8 national assessment conducted in 2017, and the grade 6 national assessment incl. learning loss report published in 2022, based on sound methodological considerations.
• Support EQAD team to quality assure data collection tools, sampling methodology, and assessment questionnaires, aiming to address potential biases due to dropout for students.
• Support the EQAD team to carry out analysis to investigate the current learning level and learning loss/gain, identifying potential mitigating and intensifying, factors as a result of school closures, based on appropriate and accepted scientific statistical methodologies, as part of the grade 8 national assessment.
• Write a concise report on the results of the grade 8 national assessment including the current student learning levels as well as learning loss/gain caused due to school closures and other factors associated with learning and the COVID19 pandemic. The consultant will draw on both the findings from the 2022 grade 8 national assessment and the previous 2017 grade 8 national assessment and other existing data sets as appropriate, and as identified by the consultant to enable an analysis of learning loss/gain.
• Provide continuous capacity building and assistance to EQAD technical officers
• Support EQAD to develop a presentation on findings for dissemination to wider education sector stakeholders, CDPF partners, and MoEYS leadership.

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

Qualifications and Experience

• An advanced University degree (master's degree or above) in a relevant field such as education planning, management, economics, statistics, or similar
• At least ten years of experience working in the education sector and a solid understanding of the education development context in Cambodia or Southeast Asia
• Strong research and data analysis skills and demonstrated experience in learning assessment projects, learning loss estimations, methods, and analysis.
• Good knowledge of quantitative and qualitative analysis software packages (e.g. Stata, SPSS, R, Nvivo).
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in the English language.
• Demonstrated ability to provide on-the-job capacity-building support to government officials.

Languages

• Proficient in English language.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

Please find the details term of reference for this TOR Support the Education Quality Assurance Department in implementation of the Grade 8 National Assessment.pdf

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 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.