National Consultancy Service: Study on Effectiveness of Upgrading Teachers’ Education Program of Primary School in Tigray Regional State
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.
Kindest Al. (1987:71) in line with the need for a change of quality of life stated that “Development takes place first of all in the minds and hearts of people”. The role of teachers in this respect cannot be over looked. The 1994 Education and training policy and other documents published by the MoE such as Teacher Education system Overhaul (TESO), Teacher Development program blueprint give high emphasis on the role of teachers on the improvement of the quality of Education.
In spite of the intention of the government, the quality of Education has not yet addressed the required demand. For example, the learning assessment conducted at grade 4, 8 and 10 in Tigray region Education Bureau (TREB, 2007 EC) revealed that the average result who scored 50% and above in each grade is 42.9%, 39.5% and 38.6% respectively. Since, the result has not been satisfactory, a lot of task is remained to overcome the problem2.2.9 To mitigate this problem, one of the major strategies set nationally has been working on teachers’ capacity. Being a national and regional priority, teachers were being capacitated for the last two decades both in pre-service and in-service programs. Under this frame, all ‘certificate teachers’ (previously teacher training institution graduates) are on track to be trained at diploma level and the achievement so far is 97% (MoE report 2015E.C).
Likewise, for the past six years, Tigray Education Bureau has been working to upgrade certificate teaching to diploma status with different specializations. However, reports and supervision findings indicate that the upgraded teachers have not yet demonstrated the expected level of teaching methods, assessment practice, resource utilization and classroom management techniques. In general, upgraded teachers are not fulfilling the expectations of the region.
British Council Ethiopia therefore invites interested national service providers to submit a tender for: “Study on Effectiveness of Upgrading Teachers’ Education Program of Primary School in Tigray Regional State” 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: