Education Officer (Field Monitoring)

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children’s rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behaviour towards children.
UNICEF insists that the survival, protection and development of children are universal development imperatives that are integral to human progress.
UNICEF mobilizes political will and material resources to help countries, particularly developing countries, ensure a “first call for children” and to build their capacity to form appropriate policies and deliver services for children and their families.
UNICEF is committed to ensuring special protection for the most disadvantaged children – victims of war, disasters, extreme poverty, all forms of violence and exploitation, and those with disabilities.
UNICEF responds in emergencies to protect the rights of children. In coordination with United Nations partners and humanitarian agencies, UNICEF makes its unique facilities for rapid response available to its partners to relieve the suffering of children and those who provide their care.
UNICEF is non-partisan and its cooperation is free of discrimination. In everything it does, the most disadvantaged children and the countries in greatest need have priority.
UNICEF aims, through its country programmes, to promote the equal rights of women and girls and to support their full participation in the political, social and economic development of their communities.
UNICEF works with all its partners towards the attainment of the sustainable human development goals adopted by the world community and the realization of the vision of peace and social progress enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

Context

The humanitarian situation for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh is challenging, with 975,350 Rohingya refugees/forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals from Myanmar of which 934,759 arrived since 25 August 2017. 52 percent of the refugees are children, making this a continuing crisis for children impacting their wellbeing, development and future trajectories. Challenges in the response include a lack of qualified teachers, a limited number of learning spaces and low attendance of adolescent girls. Furthermore, the protracted nature of Rohingya response in Bangladesh has put social and economic pressure on Cox’s Bazar district. The district was already prone to natural hazards and climate change and is one of the lower performing districts in the Annual Primary School Census (2020).
This role will support UNICEF’s education programmes for the Rohingya response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. UNICEF’s is the leading education agency and supports more than 85 percent of formal education programming in the camps. To support this, the successful candidate will work under the guidance and general supervision of the Education Specialist (NOC) to provide technical and operational support related to the effective instruction of the curriculum and teacher training. This is in line with the Joint Response Plan (JRP) and Country Programme Document (CPD).

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Education Specialist (NOC). The UN Volunteer Education Officer – Teachers Professional Development will:
 Ensure compliance in programme implementation and reporting based on Implementing Partner’s Programme Documents or institutional contracts with organisations with support from UNICEF’s Programme Officers and Specialists
 Prepare field monitoring reports or presentations, which include on the quality of partner’s imple-mentation, for sharing with the UNICEF education team.
 Provide inputs to project documentation such as briefing notes and programme visit reports and facilitate donor visits to the camps.
 In the camps, coordinate with key stakeholders including implementing partners and with camp coordination structures and internally within the UNICEF education team and with other program-matic units.
 Work closely with the Education Specialist NOC and Education Officer NOB to identify best prac-tices related to classroom teaching, teacher learning circles, use of formative assessment, teach-ing training and classroom observation and peer-teaching. Ensure these best practices are docu-ment and shared.
 Conduct weekly field monitoring in the UNICEF supported Learning Facilities (LFs) in the camps and provide technical feedback to the partners on the ground especially related to teachers and teaching.
 Support teachers’ training programme planning and monitor the quality of teacher training being provided.
 Coordinate with Implementing Partners (especially the Teaching & Learning Officers) and the teacher training technical partners to organize training schedules according to the training plan. This includes ensuring the right teachers are in the right trainings and that there are substitute teachers in the learning facilities.
 Work closely with Myanmar Curriculum consultant, technical partners, and the UNICEF education team to review teacher training content to ensure effective instruction of the curriculum. Ensure pre and post tests are used for every training and that the data from these is shared with UNICEF.
 Support the end-of-year summative assessment process and placement test for out-of-school children.
 Help finalise the classroom observation tool, ensuring implementing partners Teacher & Learning Officers, and the mentor teachers, are trained and supported on filling it in correctly. Work with the Education Specialist NOC to create a feedback loop where data collected from classroom ob-servations is fed-back to the teacher training technical institutes to modify content, and to the master trainers who deliver teacher training.
 Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.
Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to –
– Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day)
– Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
– Provide annual and end of assignment reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and oppor-tunities using UNV’s Volunteer Reporting Application
– Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publica-tions/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
– Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers
Results/Expected Output:
 Facilitate the planning, rollout, implementation and monitoring of teacher training programmes in the Rohingya response working jointly with the Education Specialist (NOC) and Education Officer (NOB) to achieve this.
 Support the review of teacher training content (training schedules, training objectives, training content, facilitator content and pre and post-tests) ensuring the training is being conducted at the right level for the teachers. Feedback from the teachers (including from classroom observations) is incorporated into training content and training facilitation to ensure the training is relevant, ef-fective and meets the required needs.
 Age, Gender, and Diversity (AGD) perspective is systematically applied, integrated and docu-mented in all activities throughout the assignment.
 Regular field visits focused on teacher observation and observation of the quality of teacher train-ing are undertaken with supportive feedback given. Findings and action points from the observa-tions are documents and shared with the supervisor and/or other education team members for their awareness and decision-making.
 Implementing partners and technical partners are supported with regular coordination, communi-cation, and technical guidance.
 A final statement of achievements towards volunteerism during the assignment.