BRITISH COUNCIL ETHIOPIA: Invitation for Consultancy Service
Consultancy Service: For Preparation of National Strategy for Mother Tongue Languages Education Development
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.
Ethiopia has been implementing a multi-lingual and decentralized education and training policy/ETP since 1994. The policy provides all citizens with the right to attend an eight year primary education in their own mother tongue. Apart from being a fundamental child right, this policy provision has sound pedagogical benefits in facilitating school attendance and enhancing children’s learning. Following the implementation of the policy, the number of mother tongue languages taught as subjects and used as media of instruction has reached over 51 during the past two decades, and a remarkable expansion of primary education has been documented where the net enrolment ratio for primary education has reached 96% in 2015 from nearly 20% in 1997.
Considering the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic realities of Ethiopia, and being well conscious of the advantages of citizens’ being bi-or multilingual for broader socio-cultural interdependence and for improved economic opportunities in the national and international labour markets, the policy has addressed bi-and multilingualism in which children should have access to learn local languages, other than their own mother tongue, as their second and third languages and other foreign languages based on their interest.
However, there hasn’t been a comprehensive national strategic guidance hitherto to support the implementation of the policy at grass root levels. Therefore, the Ministry of Education has decided to prepare a national strategy for mother tongue languages education development in line with the umbrella national vision of achieving a middle income economy by 2025. As a result, this strategic activity of language education development has been planned to be accomplished as part of the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTPII) and the fifth education sector development programme (ESDP V) which emphasize on improved mother tongue languages education development for enhanced mother tongue reading and writing skills proficiency of both teachers and students.
For expedited and timely completion of the mother tongue languages education development national strategy, it has become necessary to undertake procurement of a competent consultancy firm experienced in the development of policy, strategy and planning of mother tongue languages education development in multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and multicultural countries like Ethiopia
British Council Ethiopia therefore invites interested service providers to submit a tender for: “Consultancy Service on the Preparation of National Strategy for Mother Tongue Languages Education Development” 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
1. RFP- Request for proposal bid document
2. Terms and Conditions of Contract
3. Supplier Response
4. Pricing Approach
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: