Education Sector Analysis

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Description

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As SESP&R has been concluded on 31st December 2024; SELD, UNICEF and partners intend to develop the new School Education Sector Plan for Sindh 2025-2030 (Sindh ESP 2025-30) as a more robust provincial educational instrument designed to provide sound strategic directions towards the achievement of the targets of the SDG-4. Sindh ESP 2025-30 will outline coherent set of programmatic priorities, outcomes, outputs, KPIs, costing plan, implementation strategies and arrangements that are aimed to addressing the educational challenges in Sindh including out-of-school children – also building on the past successes and the recommendations of the joint review of the 2019-2024 SESP&R, outlines mitigation for the persistent challenges and caters to the needs of emerging developments in the education sector in Sindh.   

Sindh ESP 2025-2030 will be guided by a high-quality ESA and will be developed in accordance with the Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Preparations by International Institute of Educational Planning – UNESCO (IIEP- UNESCO).

Key elements of ESA will include the following:

• Examination of the context of the development of the education sector in Sindh
• Status of access ad participation in education by children of Sindh as per Right to Free and Compulsory Education and interlinkages with other sub-sectors of the education sector (TVET/others) and related multi-sectors (e.g., WASH, Child Protection, Health, Nutrition/others)
• Status of the quality of teaching and learning
• Governance and management
• Equitable educational financing
• External efficiency
• Sindh ESP 2025-30 will be guided by an overall vision which is strategic, holistic, evidenced-based, achievable, context-sensitive, gender-responsive and is equity-focused. Sindh ESP 2025-30 will exhibit the following.
• Human, technical, political and financial considerations in line with the findings of ESA
• Alignment with Global/National Commitments and National/Provincial Educational Policy Framework
• Challenges and emerging needs
• Goals and Objectives of the Sindh ESP 2025-30
• Strategic Directions, Priority Program Areas, and strategies (including gender and inclusion strategy)
• Costing and financing plan
• Implementation plan including main/sub-activities, units, baselines, year-wise targets role of the Govt/ Partners and inter-linkages the indicators of SDG-4/others SDGs
• Monitoring plan (results framework, outcomes, outputs, results, KPIs, MOVs, reporting mechanism)
• Implementation arrangements including organizational structure and capacities
• Evaluation arrangements including review/monitoring/reporting mechanism, annual review and Joint Education Sector Reviews
• In consideration of the Education Emergency in Pakistan, a Multi-Sector Strategic Roadmap for OOSC/A was recently developed. ESP will take stock of strategic aims of the Roadmap and reflect in the ESP. 

Key considerations for costing of ESA and ESP (as per ESP Preparation Guidelines by IIEP-UNESCO):

• Estimated costs of the ESP will be examined at regular intervals during ESP preparation, using projections and a financial simulation model to eventually establish a reference scenario (of ESP targets and corresponding inputs) that is financially sustainable.
• Simulation model will be used to automate calculations and for ensuring the consistency of the projections made. Cost estimates and financial trade-offs will lead to the simulation of various scenarios (and corresponding policy choices).
• Above considerations will lead to rethinking and adapting the programs and policy targets until an optimum scenario is found and there is a reasonable consensus among the stakeholders.
• ESP to be developed based on the quantitative reference scenario projecting the development of the education system needs and resources requirements according to policy assumptions and targets.
• Enrolments are projected at every level, gender-disaggregated when relevant, using access and student flow indicators.
• Human and physical resources requirements. Using target indicators and norms on the conditions of schooling (e.g. assumptions on resource use: textbooks per student ratios, class size, student/teacher ratios); ESP will simulate human resources, equipment, and infrastructure requirements.
• Necessary consultation/dialogue within SELD and external partners to be organized to identify estimation of annual plan/budgets and on-budget and off-budget amounts.

Work Assignment: Scope of Work:

• ESA, ESP Costing Specialist Consultant will collaborate with SELD/Departments, Partners, UNICEF/other related stakeholders as well as other consultants to collect authentic unit costs, carry out cost analysis, produce related projections/ simulation model and provide disaggregated costs related to all cost elements of ESA and ESP.
• ESA, ESP Costing Specialist Consultant will perform following specific tasks:

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• A first University Degree (Bachelors) in accounting and finance.
• Minimum 2 years’ of relevant and professional experience related to dealing with educational financing.
• Excellent understanding of cost elements of educational finance, budget preparation, analysis and reporting.
• Experience working with financial modeling tools (e.g., Excel-based simulations, Education Simulation Models like EFW (Education Finance Watch), or GPE’s financial projection tools).
• Experience in evaluating spending efficiency and recommending cost-optimization strategies (Desirable)
• Experience in cost-benefit analysis of education programs and analyzing efficiency of current education expenditures (Desirable).
• Proven experience in organizing and facilitating higher-level technical consultation sessions on educational financing/budgets with government/ non-government stakeholders.
• Knowledge of cross-sectoral budgeting to allocate costs efficiently across interlinked areas.
• Ability to undertake field missions, especially in diverse and challenging contexts.
• Ability to work under pressure, meet tight deadlines and willingness to accept the assignment at short notice.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written); proven experience for effectively and efficiently working with public officials at all levels.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset. 
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset. 

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