National Consultancy Service: Capacity Assessment of Primary and Secondary School Principals and Supervisors on Classroom Assessment and Active Learning in SNNPR
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations operating in more than 110 countries and territories worldwide and has been in Ethiopia for the last 71 years.The British Council, which is one of the major partners of the Federal Ministry of Education of Ethiopia, has been involved and has made contributions to the development of the education sector in Ethiopia. Currently, through the Quality Education Strategic Support Programme (QESSP) funded by DFID, British Council is supporting the Ministry of Educations on capacity building; policy dialogue and enhancing evidence-based decision making capabilities.
The Government of Ethiopia’s national vision, as articulated in the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP 2), is to transform Ethiopia within the next decade into a country where democratic rule, good governance and social justice reign. Additionally, it has a vision of becoming a lower middle-income economy by 2025 with the role of education being to produce creative citizens that will contribute to the realization of this vision. This reinforces the need to focus on educating and training a workforce that meets the needs of industries.
In Ethiopia, regions are showing increased commitment to improving access to quality education for all children. This is important as children’s life chances are strongly influenced by the quality of their education.This commitment to improve quality of education is reflected in major documents such as GTP II and ESDP V. Both plans consider the key education indicators, their targets for the next five years, and the best way these can be achieved. ESDP V, in particular, aims to increase access to general education, improve quality and internal efficiency, develop capacity to improve management, improve and increase teachers’ skills through training and increase the transition rate from primary to secondary schools.
Development partners including the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) have provided support to the education sector for several years. One of DFID’s current programme of support to the education sector is the Quality Education Strategic Support Programme (QESSP). British Council is the managing agent for QESSP.
Quality Education Strategic Support Programme (QESSP) is designed to complement and support existing efforts by the regions to improve quality of education. A proposal linked to improving quality of education and submitted by SNNPR Regional Education Bureau is approved for funding through QESSP.
Teachers have an irreplaceable role and responsibility to undertake classroom assessment and apply active learning teaching methods in the classroom. Teachers need a continuous and professional support from school principals and supervisors; besides developing skill through pre-service and on the job training successful principals provide instructional leadership. They are expected to spend more of their time working with teachers and students and less of their time in the office. They observe what is going on in the classrooms, hold high expectations for teacher performance and student achievement, and provide necessary resources, including own skills and knowledge.
In line with this ESDP V has also realized the importance applying classroom assessment and active learning as major strategies to improve the learning outcomes of students at all levels. Highlighting the challenges faced in realizing these strategies, ESDP V underlined that school principals and supervisors currently do not have the required capacity to conduct informed classroom observation and provide appropriate, constructive feedback to improve teacher performance. It emphasized that both groups (principals and supervisors) need theoretical understanding and practical skills in core areas of supervision, such as continuous assessment and classroom observation for on-the-job support to teachers. For this to happen there needs to be support systems for the teachers and school managers alike that enable regular measuring/identification of progress of both individual and groups of leaners measured against the curriculum expectations of their respective learning levels.It is against this background and challenges faced in SNNPR in improving the learning outcomes of students that the Regional Education Bureau requested support from the Quality Education Strategic Support Programme (QESSP) in order to improve the situation.
In line with the Regional Education Bureau’s expressed priority and QESSP’s commitment to support need based capacity building interventions, an extensive assessment of capacity at the REB and Zonal Education Office (ZEO) and sample primary and high school level is considered essential. The assessment will identify capacity gaps and recommend appropriate interventions to build capacity of principals and supervisors in classroom assessment and active learning.
British Council Ethiopia therefore invites interested national service providers to submit a tender for: “Capacity Assessment of Primary and Secondary School Principals and Supervisors on Classroom Assessment and Active Learning in SNNPR” in accordance with the Request for Proposal (RFP) Pack available from British Council’s e-Tendering portal hosted at https://in-tendhost.co.uk/britishcouncil.The following Bid Pack is available to download from the Portal:
List of Annexes forming part of the RFP
Requirements
It is expected that the consulting firm will designate a team leader for this assignment. Both the consulting firm and the team leader are expected to have the following essential qualifications and experience:
The team