International Consultant for Education Sector Analysis

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Description

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• The consultants will undertake desk study of documents in Bangladesh to be complemented through literature or review of experience of similar countries that could provide additional insight into the sector. In addition, all policy and strategy documents, existing relevant studies, EMIS data, evaluations and Joint Review findings, annual school census and sector reports and other relevant literature will be reviewed in cooperation with the government and development partners.

• The consultants will meet and discuss with officials from the two education ministries and its directorates, boards and other relevant ministries including Finance, Planning and others, ELCG members, development partners, school level stakeholders including children, Head teachers, teachers, education officers, parents, School Management Committee members  and other relevant stakeholders to gain further insight into the education sector, in general, and critical issues, in particular. This will include organizing one national level workshop (2 days) and seven sub-national level workshops to discuss the ESA.

• 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 Bangladesh the risks related to natural disasters, conflicts, political commitment, predictability of funding and capacity constraints etc. and their impact on the education system.

• 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 in relation to – 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.
• Internal efficiency: Are students completing the primary cycle? How many repeats? How many drops out? looking at intra-cycle retention and cycle completioQuality 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, distribution of teachers, relation between qualification/training of teacher and children results.
• External efficiency: Do students find relevant employment after graduation? What are the opportunities in the labor market?

• 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 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.
• 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.)
• Analyze the extent to which the system has an established mechanisms and its realization, role of the education ministries (currently being played and could play) to ensure quality in education service deliveries, in terms of financing, inspections, curriculum, examinations in private, public and community schools.
• Analyze the system’s fitness for its purpose. Assessing the extent to which the education administration and management system is devolved.
• Analyze strengths 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.)
• Analyze the competencies and qualification of staff to undertake expected tasks and clearly stated roles and responsibilities of each position.

• An advanced university degree (Master’s ) in Education, Policy Studies, Education Planning and Management, Development Studies, Economics, Social Sciences and any other discipline related to education planning and governance.
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in the field of educational research and educational plan developments
• Sufficient experience in undertaking education sector related research and development of compacts, preferably in developing countries.
• Experience in development of policy level documents, including financial analysis and costing.
• Experience working with government ministries, preferably with education ministries.
• Experience in preparing GPE-financed plans and programmes.
• Awareness and understanding of the governance system and government’s working culture in Bangladesh.
• Good background and skills in facilitating large stakeholder consultations, and managing intense debates, discussions and expectations.
• Strong analytical and conceptual thinking with excellent writing, communication and presentation skills with stakeholders.
• Excellent track record in capacity development of government counterparts, including facilitation of structured group work and activities.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is must. Speaking Bangla is an asset.

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