Background and Purpose
Rwanda’s long-term development vision is to ensure a high standard of living for all Rwandans.
Rwanda targets economy-wide improvements in productivity and an economic transformation from subsistence agriculture towards commercial agriculture, manufacturing, and services. The wide range of Vision 2050 strategies are expected to increase demand for better and more appropriately skilled workers. In this regard, there is a strong need for building appropriate skills and competencies in the country.
Ensuring that Rwandan citizens have the appropriate skills and human capital will be essential for realizing this vision of national socio-economic development.
To that end, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) has the mandate to ensure equitable access to quality education, focusing on combating illiteracy, promotion of science and technology, critical thinking, and positive values.
To ensure that the goals of Rwanda, in general, and the Ministry of Education, specifically, are being met it is necessary to ensure strong integration of teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) within the education system, from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education.
In this line, the Ministry of Education is developing a STEM Strategy, which will guide and oversee implementation of the scaling-up of STEM in Rwanda.
And, there is some investment by partners to support STEM from upper primary (Grades 4 - 6) to tertiary levels of education. But, there is a minimal support and interventions from pre-primary to lower primary levels of education in STEM.
Justification
It is against this background that UNICEF and MINEDUC are hiring an individual consultant to support MINEDUC to support the components from pre-primary to lower primary (Grades 1 - 3).
The scope of the work within this consultancy would complement the overall STEM Strategy, by the Ministry of Education.
Objectives
Specifically, the objectives of the ToR are for support to MINEDUC to:
1.Review global best practice in STEM in education, from pre-primary to lower primary education;
2.Map and identify pre-primary and lower primary initiatives and best practices in STEM within Rwanda;
3.Outline internationally compatible core competencies that students must acquire from pre-primary through P3
4.Develop a series of recommendations on key activities for improving STEM at pre-primary to lower primary levels of education in Rwanda;
5.Draft a pilot for STEM from pre-primary to lower primary education in Rwanda;
A.Review Global best practice on STEM in Education (Focusing on Pre-primary and Lower Primary)
The consultant will undertake a desk review of global best practise of integrating STEM in education, from pre-primary to lower primary education, with a particular focus and emphasis on African contexts.
The consultant will provide an analysis including, but not limited to, the following topics: policy; monitoring and evaluation; curriculum; teacher training; teaching and learning material; pedgagogy; learning assessment; cost efficient use of teaching learning materials for STEM; disability inclusion, and climate change resilience. International student learning assessments on STEM, such as TIMSS, shall be reviewed for guidance on core competencies to be acquired in early grades building to learning compatible with international standards.
Given the need for countries to adapt and show resilience to emergencies and natural disasters, successful use of technology and innovative methods (such as virtual science labs) will be reviewed to draw lessons for Rwanda contexts.
The consultant will then compile the findings into a comprehensive report.
B.Map and identify pre-primary and lower primary initiatives and best practices in STEM within Rwanda
The individual consultant will undertake a mapping of STEM initiatives and best practices in pre-primary to lower primary education in Rwanda, including, but not limited to following topics: policy; monitoring and evaluation; curriculum; teacher training; teaching and learning material; pedagogy; assessment; disability inclusion, and climate change resilience. This shall also include identification of practices that may be obsolete and ineffective in the current context of teaching and learning.
The consultant will liaise with Ministry of Education, its agencies, and other stakeholders within this process.
The consultant will then compile the findings into a comprehensive report.
C.Develop a series of recommendations on how to scale-up STEM in education in Rwanda (focusing on pre-primary and lower primary)
The consultant will work with the Ministry of Education to review the analysis of STEM initiatives in Rwanda from pre-primary to lower primary against the Desk Review of Global Best Practices of STEM in Education and develop a series of activities with the aim to scale-up STEM from pre-primary to lower secondary, in Rwanda.
These recommendations should be formulated, but not be limited to, the following areas: policy; monitoring and evaluation; curriculum; teacher training; teaching and learning material; pedagogy; assessment; cost efficient use of teaching learning materials for STEM; disability inclusion, and climate change resilience.
The recommendations should take into consideration and be contextualised to the situation of Rwanda as well as for anticipated shocks induced by crisis such as COVID19.
D.Draft a pilot for STEM in pre-primary to lower primary education
The consultant will work with the Ministry of Education, its agencies, and other relevant stakeholders, to draft a pilot for classroom level implementation of STEM from pre-primary to lower primary education, in Rwanda.
The pilot should align with the Education Sector Strategic Plan; the STEM Strategy; as well as other key strategic Government documents.
It should span pre-primary to lower primary levels of Education.
Close to the time of pilot, the consultant should consider any pressing circumstances that warrant relevant adaptations to the priorities and methodology of the intervention.
The assignment will be supervised by UNICEF Chief of Education, in cooperation with MINEDUC.
The individual consultant is expected to use their own hired vehicles, equipment, including computers. UNICEF will be under no operational obligation to pay for operational costs related to this assignment. All costs required to operationalize this assignment shall be borne by the hired individual consultant and should be included into the proposed financial proposal.
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
1.The individual consultant should, at a minimum, have a Master’s degree in any of the following areas: Education, Social Sciences, Science and Technology
2.The consultant should have at least 5 years of proven experience in STEM and Education;
3.The consultant should be familiar with education systems; pedagogy; curriculum design; and/or education policy and frameworks;
4.The consultant should have the ability to meet the deadlines;
5.The consultant should have strong communication and facilitation skills;
6.Proficiency in written and spoken English is required, French and/or Kinyarwanda would be an advantage;
Closing Date Sat Jul 11 2020 05:55:00 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)
