A. Project Background

Since 2016, UNESCO has been supporting the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Zambia through capacity development towards the development and implementation of national educational policies to meet Zambia’s SDG4 commitments. Through support from UNESCO’s CapED Programme,  MoE in collaboration with key stakeholders have made considerable progress towards the operationalization of the standards of practice, development of the national framework for Continuous Professional Development (CPD), operationalization of the National framework for social dialogue for teachers in Zambia and capacity building for in-service teachers in gender responsive pedagogy.

However, a lot still needs to be done to ensure teacher professionalism for improved delivery of quality education at all levels. Therefore, UNESCO seeks to engage consultants/consultancy firms to undertake a diagnostic study to generate the evidence across all the nine (9) teacher dimensions to inform the development and implementation of the comprehensive teacher policy for Zambia.

The consultant/consultancy team will work closely with the MoE particularly, Directorate of Teacher Education and Specialized Services, Directorate of Finance, Directorate of Human Resources, Teaching Council of Zambia, Teaching Service Commission, Teacher Associations. Additionally, the consultancy team will engage and collaborate with different education stakeholders and partners and Cooperating partners and Civil Society Organizations. Facilitation of data collection will be supported by MoE Teacher Education and Specialized Services (TESS) staff. For quality assurance purposes, UNESCO will also participate in the study and where necessary conduct random checks throughout the data collection. Officials from the Directorate of Teacher Education and Specialized Services will also participate in data collection process.

Long Description

B.    Tasks

The objective of this consultancy is to conduct a diagnostic study to inform the development of the comprehensive national teacher policy.  In this regard, the diagnostic study will undertake a comprehensive desk review (secondary data) of the existing policy guidelines, legal frameworks, procedures and practices in relation to the status of teachers, their working conditions, management, administration and professional development in line with the nine (9) dimensions  of teacher issues in Zambia. Primary data will be completed through interviews/consultative meetings with key stakeholders and informants including teachers at all levels and collect views on how the teachers’ sector can be regulated, guided and improved in Zambia.

Using quantitative and qualitative data, this diagnostic study will analyse how Zambia’s educational system fares on the full array of teachers’ issues ranging from the general context in which they work to their social and professional context in which they operate. During the process of this study, the consultancy team will be expected to work closely with the established national technical team and identify policy recommendations for the comprehensive teacher policy.

In relation to the purpose and main objective of this consultancy above, the following are the specific objectives:

i.    examine key factors (related to the nine teacher dimensions) impacting on the improvement of the teaching profession in Zambia and examine the extent to which MoE and partners are implementing new interventions and approaches to improve the teaching profession in line with the nine dimensions of teacher issues in Zambia.

ii.    review and identify successes, best practices and major challenges pertaining to the nine dimensions and further identify existing opportunities related to teachers (such as existing interventions, practices, programmes, initiatives or promising practices) to build upon for the development of the teacher policy.

iii.    undertake gender analysis across all the 9 dimensions and provide sex disaggregated data from EMIS and other related policy and programme documents and data platforms to illustrate gender imbalances and ensure gender analysis of the education sector policies on teachers explaining the barriers causing the imbalances, and why they matter for comprehensive teacher policy highlighting where data is lacking.

iv.    analyse the political and financial implications of the implementation of the proposed dimensions of new national teacher policy considering the national context.

v.    provide possible and specific policy solutions/recommendations to guide the development of the comprehensive teacher policy; and finally

vi.    provide technical support in organising  and facilitating the national workshop to validate and disseminate key findings and recommendations of the diagnostic study amongst key stakeholders in the Zambian education sector.

Long Description

C.    Deliverables

•    Submission of inception report with detailed data collection tools, mapping of documents for secondary data and full list of entities and respondents targeted for the interview by 27th  September 2023;

•    Submission of the report on the data collection process with transcripts/translations and audio recordings of all qualitative interviews and focus group discussions 31st  October 2023.  This report will also be emplaned by the outline of the study report to approved by UNESCO.

•    Submission of the full draft report including a gender analysis and deliver the presentation of findings during the national validation workshop with key stakeholders by 15th  November 2023.

•    Submission of the comprehensive final validated report (covering all aspects of the 9 dimensions and political and financial implications of the implementation of the proposed dimensions of new national teacher policy considering the national context) to UNESCO with incorporated feedback by 30th  November 2023; and

•    Submission of a short process report that will accompany the diagnostic study report and with incorporated feedback by 30th  November 2023.

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

•    The Team leader/Lead consultant should have a doctoral degree in Education, Social Sciences or related fields, while other consultants should have a master’s degree in education or social sciences as a minimum qualification.

•    All members of the consultancy team should have a good understanding of the 9 dimensions of teacher policy teacher from the global, regional, and national level perspective.

Specifically, the team of experts or consultancy firm is expected to be dynamic and demonstrate the following aspects of the selection criteria:

i.     Experts should demonstrate adequate technical capacity to complete the assignment on time as will  be prescribed in the contract.

ii.    The lead consultant should be expected to bring at least 10 years of robust experiences in executing educational research, development of education sector policies and frameworks, conceptualizing, designing, or managing projects in education, particularly in teacher training.

iii.    The team should have at least one team member with good understanding of the education issues in the Zambia sector landscape specifically on curriculum and teaching pedagogies.

iv.    The team should demonstrate working knowledge of laws and practices relevant to teacher policies, even if limited to one area.

v.    Demonstration of sound understanding and application of policy concepts, methodologies and tools.

vi.    Good analytical and report writing skills and clear roles of each team member for the study well-presented along with their CVs proven knowledge of various qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

vii.    Proven experience and ability to communicate, negotiate and work closely with the government counterparts and education partners.

viii.    Proof of experience in collecting data in schools and a good knowledge of the associated practical and ethical considerations.

ix.    Experience with using electronic data collection tools and strong experience in data analysis using statistical techniques, formulas, and calculations to help draw inferences and conclusions.

x.    Strong statistical skills including knowledge of applications such as EPI Info, CS Pro, STATA 11 and or SPSS.

xi.    Strong oral and written communication skills in English within and similar work experience in African regions would be considered a plus.

xii.    Previous consultancy work experience with UNESCO or another UN institution, or any other international agencies would be an asset.

xiii.    Gender balance in the composition of consultancy team will be an advantage.

ix.    A Zambian based implementation partner would be an added advantage. This partner will work closely with the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa to ensure the objectives of this project are met

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

The desirable qualifications for the Lead Consultant is a minimum of a PhD degree in education or social sciences with demonstrated experience in qualitative and qualitative research in teacher education. The desirable qualifications for the supporting experts to the Lead Consultant is a minimum of a master’s degree in education or social sciences with demonstrated experience in qualitative and qualitative research in teacher education.

DURATION

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

Interested team of consultants/consultancy firms may submit their proposals articulating their methodology and approach  for undertaking the assignment with a cover letter together with CVs of the experts to the UNESCO using the following email address:  vacancies.harare@unesco.org by 10 September 2023.

    The above submission should be accompanied with a summarized matrix showing the qualifications, work experience and desirable skills of each team in relation to the  aspects of the selection criteria above:

Note: Travel costs for data collection and logistics will be part of the agreed total contract fee. The working language for communication with UNESCO and MoE will be English, but the language employed for data collection will vary based on the languages spoken in the communities of the sampled schools.

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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