Myanmar: NATIONAL CONSULTANT – Coordination of Year 2 Pre-service teacher education curriculum development

NATIONAL CONSULTANT –

Coordination of Year 2 Pre-service teacher education curriculum development

(Position located in Yangon, Myanmar)

Terms of Reference

Date Issued: 29 July 2019

Functional Title: National Consultant – Coordination of teacher education curriculum development

Organizational unit: UNESCO Myanmar Project Office

Duty Station: Yangon, Myanmar

Duration of the contract: 26 August 2019 to 30 June 2020

Application deadline: 8 August 2019

Background:

UNESCO, in partnership with the Ministry of Education (MoE), is working to strengthen pre-service teacher education in Myanmar through reform measures outlined in the National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) 2016-21. The project named “Strengthening pre-service Teacher Education in Myanmar (STEM)” addresses four fundamentally important aspects of pre-service teacher education. These include:

· formulating a policy framework of pre-service teacher education and identifying standards for quality assurance,

· improving a system of pre-service teacher training institutions - Education Degree Colleges (EDCs)^[1] by designing the new four-year degree programme of pre-service teacher education and creating good networks to accumulate and share knowledge and experiences of all EDCs,

· developing institutional/management and human resource capacities of EDCs, and

· mainstreaming inclusion and equity issues in teacher education.

The project is improving teacher education in the area of governance, policy development around teacher education, review of learning resources and development of curriculum, and building capacity of staff in management and teaching.

Under the project, UNESCO is supporting MoE to produce syllabi, student teacher textbooks (TBs) and teacher educator guides (TGs) for the new four-year EDC programme, to be implemented in 25 EDCs across all states and regions in Myanmar. The first and second years are considered to be foundation years, focusing on preparing student teachers to acquire basic knowledge and develop skills to teach primary and middle schools respectively while the third and fourth years provide primary and middle school specialization tracks for student teachers to choose to get more in-depth knowledge and experience in teaching students of the particular schooling levels. The curriculum of the four-year EDC degree is to train primary and middle school teachers for Myanmar basic education schools and needs to align with the new basic education curriculum, which is being implemented gradually in Myanmar^[2].

In line with this process, UNESCO supports MoE and its Curriculum Core Team (CCT)^[3] in developing EDC curriculum and related materials of 11 subjects and four learning areas^[4]. The development of Year 2 syllabi, TBs and TGs commenced in early July 2019, with support from MoE, CCT, UNESCO and other stakeholders. International and national curriculum experts will develop Year 2 syllabi, TBs and TGs between August 2019 and June 2020 through activities such as workshops and small group meetings in consultation with the CCT as well as with UNESCO and other relevant stakeholders. The pilot testing of the drafted curriculum documents will also be conducted to collect feedback from various stakeholders on the syllabi, TBs and TGs for the revision and finalization of these curriculum documents.

The subjects of the Year 2 EDC curriculum are as follows: Educational Studies, Practicum, Reflective Practice and Essential Skills, Myanmar, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies (History and Geography), Physical Education, Life Skills, Art (Performing Arts and Visual Arts), Morality and Civics, Local Curriculum, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

A senior national consultant is sought to support the coordination of a number of junior consultants who will be responsible for following-up on the development of specific subjects and the relevant experts of the Year 2 curriculum development process. The senior consultant will ensure that the various planned activities listed below are carried out in a timely manner and the products are of high quality. Please note that the schedule is tentative and subject to confirmation in consultation with UNESCO.

Time and Planned Activity

Aug to early Sep 2019, Orientation meeting with curriculum authors; and 2^nd workshop to review draft Year 2 subject syllabi

Sep 2019, Completion of initial portions of Year 2 EC TBs and TGs (to be approximately 15%-20% of Draft 1 TBs and TGs)

Oct to Nov 2019, Rolling submission of Draft 1 TBs and TGs by the curriculum authors

Oct to mid-Dec 2019, Meetings with CCT and other appropriate stakeholders to review Draft 1 TBs and TGs, by subjects

Dec 2019 to Jan 2020, Pilot testing of selected content from Draft 1 TBs and TGs

Mid-Feb 2020, Submission of Draft 2 TBs and TGs

Late Feb to early Mar 2020, Workshop to review Draft 2 TBs and TGs with all CCT members and appropriate stakeholders

Late Apr 2020, Submission of Draft 3 TBs and TGs

Late May 2020, Submission of revisions to Draft 3 TBs and TGs (if any), based on review feedback from UNESCO and appropriate stakeholders

Sep 2019 through May 2020, Arrangements may be made to pilot lessons from the draft TBs and TGs. Furthermore, more small meetings with CCT may be held to discuss and review the draft TBs and TGs if needed.

Work Assignment:

The senior national consultant will perform the tasks under the overall authority of the Director of UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, the direct supervision of the Head of Office of UNESCO Myanmar Project Office, the day-to-day guidance of the Senior Education Project Officer and in close collaboration with the STEM project team.

The senior national consultant will assist in the coordination of Year 2 EDC curriculum development process, particularly in coordinating a team of junior consultants responsible for specific subjects and communicating with the relevant experts, if necessary, to ensure that the deliverables are on time and of high quality. By providing guidance to the junior consultants, the consultant will ensure the quality assurance of the Year 2 syllabi, TBs and TGs in both English and Myanmar languages. The consultant’s responsibilities include the following:

· Get familiarized with the key relevant documents on curriculum development, including but not limited to EDC curriculum framework, Teacher Competency Standards Framework, Year 1 syllabi, TBs and TGs and Year 2 draft syllabi;

· Ensure that the junior consultants and curriculum authors/reviewers, translators, copyeditors and lay-out designers are delivering their work assignments on time and of good quality, in line with UNESCO’s guidelines;

· Coordinate a series of workshops/small group meetings, support the facilitation of relevant subject group discussions during the workshops/small group meetings, and ensure that the junior consultants are collecting the written feedbacks with clarity;

· Assure the quality of draft TBs and TGs by reviewing and ensuring that styles are adhered to across the subjects and that feedback received from various stakeholders is incorporated by the curriculum authors;

· Review the cross-curricular and subject-specific terminology translations provided by UNESCO and CCT and compiled by junior consultants, and ensure the coherence across Year 2 curriculum development process (reviewing, translating, copy-editing and proofreading);

· Work closely with the junior consultants to ensure that they are providing adequate support to the curriculum authors with selecting lessons for pilot testing and support pilot testing of selected content of Draft 1 EDC Year 2 TBs and TGs with selected EDC teacher educators and student teachers;

· Communicate on a regular basis and follow-up closely with CCT, international and national curriculum authors/reviewers, copyeditors, translators, lay-out designers and other stakeholders to ensure that they are submitting their deliverables according to the agreed timeline;

· Organize all documents in accordance with UNESCO’s guidelines and make them available for the UNESCO team’s use; and

· Develop a summary report on the results of the activities completed, challenges encountered, efforts made to address any issues during the curriculum development process and recommendations on improving the curriculum development process for EDC Year 3 and Year 4 TBs and TGs.

Deliverables and Timeline:

1. Monthly progress reports on the achievements and challenges encountered in delivering the outputs related to the work assignment by the end of each month between September 2019 and May 2020. All deliverables must be submitted with original, editable files, as well as high-resolution versions of final products (if applicable); and

2. A summary report on the results of the activities completed, challenges encountered, efforts made to address any issues during the curriculum development process and recommendations on improving the curriculum development process for EDC Year 3 and Year 4 TBs and TGs by 30 June 2020.

Location and travel:

The individual specialist will be based in UNESCO Myanmar Project Office in Yangon during the contract period. No travel outside Yangon is anticipated.

Fees:

Senior-level national consultant.

Qualifications:

Education:

· An advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) preferably with specialization in education, language study or a field relating to any of the subject areas in the Year 2 EDC curriculum.

Work experience:

· At least ten years of experience in coordinating complex multi-partner/stakeholder project or activity, teaching and/or developing curriculum and training materials;

· Previous experience in facilitating workshops would be desirable; and

· Good knowledge of teacher education curriculum development would be an asset.

Skills and competencies:

· Strong analytical skills;

· Strong management and coordination skills;

· Excellent written and oral communication skills in both English and Myanmar;

· Excellent organizational skills;

· Multi-tasking and time management skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks and to meet deadlines;

· Ability to be resourceful and proactive when issues arise;

· Proficiency in using common office ICT productivity tools such as Microsoft Office suite;

· Ability to type in both English and Myanmar on computer; and

· Ability to work independently and collaboratively on delegated tasks.

Interested applicants are invited to submit in writing to the UNESCO Myanmar Project Office:

a) A cover letter (in English) and clearly referencing “National Consultant – Year 2 Pre-service teacher education curriculum development”, indicating how your qualifications and experience make you suitable for the assignment, and the methodology and approach(es) to be adopted to carry out the assignment;

b) The expected monthly consultancy fee;

c) An up-to-date CV, with contact details including telephone numbers and email address;

d) The contact details of three referees; and

e) A writing sample in English.

Your application should reach yangon@unesco.org by email no later than 17:00 Hours (Yangon time) on 8 August 2019.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

In line with UNESCO’s overall gender mainstreaming strategy, the incumbent is expected to integrate a gender perspective in all activities and apply gender analysis and mainstreaming concepts whenever feasible.