Development of Education Sector Analysis & Education Sector Strategic Plan Development for Somaliland Ministry of Education and Science (MO&ES) 124 views2 applications

Terms of Reference

Education Sector Analysis & Education Sector Strategic Plan Development

Somaliland Ministry of Education and Science (MO&ES)

1. Background Information**

In its National Education Policy (NEP 2015-2030) Somaliland demonstrates its commitment to education as a means to prepare all students to become life-long learners equipped with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be successful and productive citizens. This commitment is aligned with the Government of Somaliland’s Vision 2030, which states that Somaliland will be “A nation whose citizens enjoy equitable and quality education” (Somaliland National Development Goals). The Vision 2030 provides a roadmap for national development that leaves no one behind.

To realize this vision and guide the development of education, the Somaliland Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) started developing a national education sector strategic plan in 2012 with the support of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). The first five-year strategic plan was developed and implemented from 2012-2016. In September 2016, Somaliland developed the second and current operational five-year Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP 2017-2021).

The implementation period of the ESSP 2017-2021 will end on 31 December 2021, and the MoES has started preparation work for the development of the next five-year plan (ESSP 2022-2026). The MOES developed and shared with GPE, an indicative road map suggesting the timeline and key milestones for undertaking education sector analysis (ESA) and developing the education sector plan (ESP). This road map indicates the preparation process to start the last quarter of 2020 and get it finalized and endorsed before end of 2021 taking sufficient time in producing quality and realistic sector plan.

2. Objective, Purpose & Scope of Work

2.1 Overall objectives:-

The overall objective of this consultancy is to contribute to the enhancement of the education sector performance in Somaliland through supporting the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) in leading and coordinating a comprehensive Education Sector Analysis (ESA) and subsequent development of five years (2022 – 2026) Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) and a detailed 3 years (2022-2024) action plan.

2.2 Purpose:

The purpose of this consultancy is to work with and provide technical support to the Somaliland MoES and other education stakeholders to undertake comprehensive education sector analysis and prepare relevant and realistic five years education sector strategic plan through participatory and consultative approach.

The result of the sector analysis and assessment of the current ending ESSP will feed into the development of the next five year ESSP for 2022-2026 and a detailed three years (2021- 2024) action plan. Being a consultative and participatory process, the consultants will work closely with the MoES and the Education Sector Committee and other education stakeholders including Ministry of finance and Planning. The process should be geared towards ensuring local ownership and building the capacity of the MoES for future sustainability, and increased capacity to carry out similar actions in the future.

2.3 Scope of work

Specific work

The consultants, jointly with the MoES and its partners, will be responsible for the preparation, design and facilitation of the ESP development through valid education sector analysis. This includes the financial and costing and implementation plans, as well as the monitoring and evaluation framework.

Specific tasks to be implemented include:

2.3.1 Education Sector Analysis: Based on the “Education Sector Analysis Methodological Guidelines” of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Secretariat, the following analyses will be undertaken in consultation with the MoES

· Desk Review: The consultants will undertake desk study of documents in Somaliland to be complemented through literature or review of experience of similar countries that could provide additional insight on the sector. In addition, all existing relevant studies, EMIS data, evaluations and Somaliland regular annual Joint Review of Education Sector (JRES) reports and other action plans will be reviewed in cooperation with MoES and development partners.

· Consultative Meetings: The consultants will meet and discuss with officials from the MoES, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning, ESC members, with education donors and partners, school level community education committees (CECs) members, children and other relevant stakeholders to gain further insight into the education sector, in general, and critical issues, in particular.

· Analysis of the context: The demographic, humanitarian, social economic and political development contexts as well as government’s commitment have a critical and direct impact on education policy given that they determine both the number of children to enroll and the social constraints the education system faces. This work involves the analysis of past trends and future projections for the total population and the school-aged population to identify the constraints placed by demographics on the education system (demand and supply). Evaluate in the context of Somaliland the risks related to natural disasters, conflicts, political commitment, predictability of funding and capacity constraints etc. and their impact on the education system.

· Analysis of cost and finance. The analysis of a country’s macroeconomics and public finance enables the estimation of past public expenditure, and the resources allocated to education in particular, as well as those likely to be available in the future and efficient use of those resources. The consultants shall further examine financing trends over a period of the sector analysis to identify whether funding has kept pace with enrollment increases and unit cost and sub-sector comparison with due to equity and explore community, private and development partners’ contribution and consider review of public expenditures.

· Analysis of education system performance: Will likely include consultations asking questions similar to the illustrative queries and analyses below.

o Access: Who goes and who doesn’t go to school and for what reason? What are the shares of each gender? Analysis should include data on marginalized groups: children with disabilities, children from rural areas, IDPs, Pastoralist, working children, and so on.

o Internal efficiency: Are students completing the primary cycle? How many repeat? How many drop out? looking at intra-cycle retention and cycle completion

o Equity: Is there equal opportunity to participate in schooling. Are conditions similar for all pupils?

o Quality of learning: System capacity and management, analysis of learning assessments, management of teachers, types of examination; children’s mastery of the basic literacy and numeracy skills (MLA), distribution of teachers, relation between qualification/training of teacher and children results.

o External efficiency: Do students find relevant employment after graduation? What are the opportunities in the labor market?

· Analysis of system capacity:

o Analyze to what degree do education systems respond and adjusts to the population’s education needs? In doing so describe historical trends in enrolment by level/sub-sector ads and school type (public, private, community and so on) as well as analyses of the national capacity to enroll the subsequent school-aged population based and equity measures.

o Assess the public finance management (PFM) in particular the actual amounts of domestic resources made available (not only the theoretical allocation) and clarify what is financed through these (teachers, including the number of teachers) and the distribution among sub-sectors ( ECCD, Primary (formal and non-formal), Secondary, TVET and Higher education.)

o Analyze the extent to which the system has an established mechanisms and its realization, MoES play or could play to ensure quality in education service deliveries, in terms of financing, inspections, curriculum, examinations in private, public and community schools.

o Analyze the system’s fitness for its purpose. Assessing the extent to which the education administration and management system is devolved.

o Analyze strengthen and limitations in the human and financial resource management systems and procedures in place and staff accountability and adherence to the procedures as well as the management of teachers (attrition, presence, instruction time etc.)

o Analyze the competencies and qualification of staff to undertake expected tasks and clearly stated roles and responsibilities of each position.

Resources to be utilized includes (but not limited to):

· Government financial operations and other available macroeconomic data;

· School survey report/Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) database;

· Population Estimation Survey;

· Any available financial reports and executed budget reports;

· Teacher Profile Reports;

· Ministry of Education and Science Human Resources materials

In doing so the consultants are expected to mainly focus on the use of existing raw data and surveys exhaustively and opt for additional field surveys where critical data is missing.

2.3.2 Assessment of the ESSP 2017- 2021

With the leadership and full participation of the MoES and development partners, the consultants will develop tools for in-depth assessment of the implementation of the ongoing ESSP. The consultants can use a combination of field visits and analysis of reports on the Joint Reviews of Education Sector (JRES), EMIS database, the child rights analysis document conducted by agencies as well as other documents such as development partners and donor reports. Based on the collected data, the consultants are expected to produce an elaborative analytic report that will be jointly validated by all stakeholders. The report need to indicate conclusions arrived at based on the collected evidences and specified recommendations/way forward on each of the subsectors following the structure of the ESSP. Towards this, the consultants jointly with the MoES are expected to do field visits, desk reviews, focus group discussion and interviews as found important to fill in information gaps. Complementing the sector analysis findings, the data observed in the above stated methods will be a base to inform the design of the new ESSP.

2.3.3 Synthesis Report

Based on the findings of the ESA and assessment of the current ESSP, the consultants will provide a high quality and analytical synthesis report that will include data analysis, as well as a narrative portion, conclusion and recommendation on way forward. Specifically detailing out lessons learnt and items to carry forward or change while developing the next ESSP of 2022 – 2026. The synthesis report will be the basis for discussions during the consultation workshop to map out the design of the next ESSP. The findings of the report will be disseminated (in hard and soft copy) to all key stakeholders and in addition the consultants will present the findings to stakeholders at scheduled events.

2.3.4 Develop Education Sector Strategic Plan for 2022 – 2026

· Working closely with the MoES, develop a five-year ESSP (2022-2026) in light of the sector analysis;

· Develop a realistic three-year Action Plan for the ESSP;

· Conduct stakeholder consultations (MoES and ESC members) on the ESSP to gather information and identify priorities and plans;

· Propose options for MoES in ways to overcome the challenge of data gaps;

· Follow the “Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Preparation and Appraisal” developed by the GPE Secretariat;

· Develop an Education Simulation Model – to be used as a costing tool and to help analyze the dynamics of education systems and ensure coherence in the development of the education sector.

3. Organization and steering

The MoES will establish a working modality structured towards enhancing participation of the different actors in the process of developing the ESSP for 2022 – 2026. The consultants shall support the MoES in the process of consultation and the participatory process. The participatory process shall involve a wide range of actors, and needs to be supported by clarity on the roles and responsibilities of these actors, especially the actors who lead and coordinate the action. Towards this the following structures will be established, roles and responsibilities be defined.

· A steering committee will oversee and guide the process. It would be composed, essentially, of senior ministry personnel, with the participation of other relevant ministries (for example, finance and planning) and development partners.

· A coordinating committee will coordinate the technical work, including bringing all ministry directorates and departments together. This committee might be led by the director general. The secretariat of the committee will be the policy and planning department of the MoES and would be responsible for supporting the preparing the education sector plan.

· Working groups will focus on specific themes or subsectors (for instance, teacher education, education in emergencies, finance, monitoring and evaluation, and so on) and will be assigned by the coordinating committee to draft specific sections of the plan.

In collaboration with the development partners the MoES shall make sure that these structures are established, have defined clear roles and responsibilities, the respective committee and working groups are functional, and their works are periodically reviewed, and provided with adequate feedbacks.

4. Deliverables

· An inception report/work program detailing methodologies to be used, implementation timeline and ways of engaging the respective Ministries, development partners and other stakeholders in the process.

· Draft Sector Analysis Report for discussion and Final Sector Analysis Reports. Analysis of relevant policy documents and data sets on the education sector within and outside of the MoES EMIS and documentations

· Education simulation model for the costing of the ESSP and draft ESSP including the multi-year implementation/action plan

· Highlights of the draft report power point presentation at a consultative and validation meeting with MoES, development partners and other stakeholders.

· Executive summary of the sector analysis and assessment of the ESSP report in not more than 15 pages.

· Soft and hard copies of the final ESA synthesis report and ESSP 2016 – 2020 document that incorporates feedback from development partners, MoES and other stakeholders.

5. Tentative work plan

The ESA/ESSP Development road map timeline submitted to GPE will be followed and used and specific tasks and timeline will be established once everybody is onboard

6. Consultant requirements

· At least an advanced degree in education and /or educational economics or related field.

· Experience in undertaking sector analysis and education sector development or similar work, preferably in other developing countries

· At least 8 years of relevant experience in the field of educational research and educational plan developments

· Good experience in gender education analysis

· Good communication skills, with fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Somali language is an asset

· Experience in analysis of macroeconomics.

· Good in facilitation and participatory approaches and team building.

· Excellent analytic and report writing skills

· Experience working with government ministries, preferably Ministry of Education.

1. Candidates interested in the position will be expected to provide the following documentation:

· A technical proposal with detailed response to the TOR, with specific focus addressing the scope of work and methodology to be used.

· Initial work plan based on methodology outlined, and indication of availability.

· A financial proposal detailing the daily rate expected and initial work plan.

Company profile or CV including a minimum of three traceable, recent (with the last five years) and relevant references to this task

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