National Individual Consultancy for the development of the National Strategy on Dropout and Repetition (60 days), Kigali-Rwanda at United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): (Deadline 3 February 2022)
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
For every child, Equity
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.
How can you make a difference?
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
This proposed work aims to support MINEDUC to develop the National Strategy/Framework on Dropout and Repetition to improve school retention and completion. Education statistics show that, despite overall high enrolment rates in primary school, dropout and repetition rates are increasing in both primary and secondary school.
The work of the consultant will guide the development of a comprehensive national strategy to address drop out and repetition, which will include identifying which existing programmes and budgets are already in operation and contributing to addressing the barriers which have been highlighted in the Drop Out and Repetition Study conducted by the Ministry of Education with UNICEF support as well as other research findings conducted in Rwanda on the issues. This approach is proposed to avoid the development of a stand-alone strategy which comprises of a list of proposed priorities without reference to the very many programmes, initiatives and budgets which are already being deployed to address the matter at different levels – national, District, school – but which may not be currently coordinated sufficiently to ensure a joined up and synergic approach to yield the desired results.
Important in this consideration is that the solutions to addressing drop out and repetition go well beyond the education sector and require a multi-sectoral approach and planning, including such areas as social protection, health and nutrition, water and sanitation and child protection, to name the most obvious. The drop out and repetition strategy should therefore identify and include the most important interventions across these varied fields which are currently contributing to addressing drop out and repetition as well as gaps in terms of coordination, focus and budget.
In completing this work, the Ministry of Education will ensure coordination with all relevant Government Agencies involved in education as well as Development Partners, to map out different interventions which are contributing to addressing drop out and repetition in order to identify gaps in an overall strategy as well as how coordination and focus can be approved within and across the different programs and budgets in existence.
Work has already begun in the education sector on developing ministerial instructions governing comprehensive assessment, promotion, repetition, and transfer of learners in order to ensure a standardized approach. The purpose of these instructions are to determine modalities and procedures of comprehensive assessment in general basic education and TVET from level 3 to level 5, determine modalities to support learners improve their learning, master what they learnt, perform better in examinations and other assessments basing on the assessment benchmarks and promotions of learners from one grade to another, or from one level to another, determine modalities of promotion, repetition dismissal and transfer of learners from one school to another.
Repetition combined with dropout, leads to: (i) over-aged pupils who repeat, in some instances more than one, who are then more likely to drop out of school than those students who never repeated a grade, (ii) lower primary school completion rates, and (iii) high Gross Enrolment Rates in early grades, which puts pressure on resource requirements.
The dropout rate in primary school is closely related to the student’s age. Dropout rates increase from less than 1% in Primary 1 to more than 20% in Primary 6. The steep increase is not related to the grade attended, but rather to the child’s age, as older children are much likely to drop out of school compared to younger children, regardless of what grade they are enrolled in. Among the other key drivers of dropout are poverty, delayed start, gender and geography, according to the Drop Out and Repetition study.
The development of a national strategy on dropout and repetition for primary and secondary level education, including the development of a repetition framework is required. It would set internally consistent national and school level targets on repetition; addressing the bottleneck causing repetition and drop out; the strategies that schools should put in place to identify learners at risk and what remedial measures to be taken.
This should be accompanied by the strengthening of data collection on repetition at the national, district and school level in order to provide real time data which enable quick decision-making on addressing identified issues. The purpose of the national strategy on drop out and repetition should be to guide all key stakeholders in improving grade promotion rates, survival rates and completion rates through substantive reduction of repetition and dropout rates, and particularly for those groups vulnerable to repetition, at all levels of the education system, with the ultimate goal of improving learning outcomes and enhancing the efficiency of the education system in Rwanda
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
|
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).
Please refer to the below detailed TOR for more information:
Terms of Reference National Strategy on Drop out and Repetition 2022 Advertized.docx
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.
Remarks:
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE AND APPLY
Kindly Note
All Jobs and Opportunities Published on mucuruzi.com are completely free to apply. A candidate should never pay any fee during the recruitment Process. Even if mucuruzi.com does its best to avoid any scam job or opportunity offer, a job seeker or an opportunity seeker is 100% responsible of applying at his own risk.
Check well before applying, if you doubt about the eligibility of any offer do not apply and notifie to mucuruzi.com via this email: [email protected] and remember to never pay any fee to have a job or get any opportunity, if you do so, do it at your own risk.
