Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Sector Programme (KESP) – Terms of Reference
Fixed Term Short Term Technical Assistance:
x3 Subject Experts for Content Review of Classes 9-10 Textbooks (Physics, Chemistry, Biology)
About KESP
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Sector Programme (KESP) 2 Technical Assistance (TA) team’s mission is to work at provincial, sub-provincial and school level to provide comprehensive, flexible and high-quality technical support to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in ensuring the rapid implementation of its strategy and priorities for transforming education service delivery. The TA constitutes a component of the wider DFID and DFAT-funded KESP 2 programme, which also includes Sector Budget Support, and an infrastructure component.
A new Education Sector Plan (ESP) for 2015-2020 has recently been launched, with an accompanying Joint Review Framework (JRF) and describes the KP Government’s comprehensive and ambitious strategy for the development of the elementary and secondary school sector in the Province. It details ten priorities: (i) redeveloping the approach to training and selecting new teachers; (ii) developing a consolidated, needs-based, high-quality approach to CPD; (iii) redeveloping teaching cadre employment rules; (iv) establishing a sustainable approach to provision of facilities; (v) launching new benefits aimed at children most at risk of educational deprivation; (vi) scaling up partnerships with the private sector; (vii) launching a drawdown fund for use in emergency situations; (viii) testing and updating of population data; (ix) developing management skills of district officials; and (x) pegging the education budget to inflation.
Background
As a part of the Elementary & Secondary Education Department’s (E&SED) reform efforts to improve textbooks from class 1-10, a three-phase initiative began in the mid-2016: Phase 1: Revision of 15 selected textbooks for classes 1-5 by November 2016; Phase 2: Revision of nine selected textbooks for classes 6-8 by October 2017; and Phase 3: Revision of ten textbooks for classes 9-10 by September 2018.
In the first phase, the TA team assisted the revision and review of textbooks by engaging with the authors from private publishers, the reviewers at the TBB, and the reviewers at the DCTE. The revisions have been completed and the revised textbooks have been received favourably by E&SED. The work on Phase 2 is also approaching its completion. It is worth noting that the revision of the textbooks is guided by the approved minimum national standards for the textbooks.
Phase 3, which focuses on classes 9-10, has recently been initiated. The TA’s initial strategy was to provide additional writing support to the TBB subject specialists. However, in August 2017, TBB engaged freelance textbook authors specialising in English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology for class 9. KESP TA team revised its earlier approach from provision of additional writing support to pairing each TBB author with a subject expert. This revised approach took into consideration the specialised nature of secondary school subjects and is describe in the following table.
According to this new approach TBB Authors and Subject Experts will pair up and work under guidance of the Senior Textbook Advisors (STAs) at each step of the process. Introducing Subject Experts as collaborators as well as reviewers adds an extra layer of support and quality assurance with an aim to ensure the preparation of high-quality textbooks. The quality assurance reviews will be conducted by both the Subject Experts as well as the STAs to ensure coverage of both the content and presentation in accordance with the minimum standards for textbooks approved by Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) in February 2016.
Specific Responsibilities of Subject Experts
Deliverables
Duration
10th November 2017 to 30th September 2018; up to 60 days on each subject. 30 days for Class 9 and 30 days for Class 10.
Location of work
The experts will be based in Islamabad and Peshawar as applicable.
Qualifications
Essential:
Preferred:
Experience
Management/Reporting
The Subject Experts will report to the Senior Textbook Advisors.
How to Apply
Send CVs to this email, recruitment@kp-espsupport.com