International Consultant for Education Sector Analysis in Bangladesh

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Background

The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has selected UNICEF as the Grant Agent (GA) for managing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) System Capacity Grant (up to US$ 4.7 million) to support GoB in the process for applying for System Transformation Grant (US$ 97.69 million).

UNICEF as the GA will support the education ministries to carry out different analysis and prepare required documents that are prerequisite for the application of System Transformation Grant.  As per GPE’s 2025 operating model, three key activities have to be completed to this end, for moving from assessment and diagnosis to prioritization and alignment, and finally to implementation, learning and adapting.  The first activity is to carry out an Enabling Factor Analysis (EFA), which will encompass reviewing the key enablers in the areas of i) data and evidence; ii) gender-responsive sector planning, policy and monitoring; iii) sector coordination; and iv) volume, equity and efficiency of domestic public expenditure on education. The second activity is to prepare a Partnership Compact (PC), based on the EFA findings, which will serve as the strategic blueprint for collaborating on key reform areas that has the potential to catalyse comprehensive systemic change/transformation. Following the EFA and PC, a comprehensive Education Sector Analysis (ESA) will be conducted, which will support the identification of high priority areas that have potentials for system transformation and can be implemented in an informed manner using System Transformation Grant.

The last ESA for Bangladesh was carried out in early 2020. The ESA 2020 reviewed access, equity, and quality aspects of pre-primary education (PPE), primary education, secondary education, technical and vocational education (TVET), non-formal education (NFE) and tertiary education. The ESA also touched upon few cross-cutting issues such as teacher supply and quality, climate change and education in emergencies (EiE), education for forcibly displaced children, ICT in Education, WASH in schools etc. However, the ESA 2020 used data mainly from 2018 and before and it refers to the pre-COVID19 times. Post-COVID situations appear to be different as the pandemic has affected many aspects of the education sector. Besides, it is important to ensure that the ESA covers disaggregated analysis of data, for example, education provision and outcomes in terms of geographical / administrative divisions.

The purpose of the consultancy is to support the education ministries in carrying out a comprehensive ESA, in accordance with GPE guidelines and strategic directions provided by the ELCG.  In doing so, the consultant will work with MoPME and MoE closely and maintain continuous collaboration with FCDO, being the Coordinating Agency (CA). As a part of the process, the consultant is also expected to work closely with national GPE Technical Committee established by MoPME.

Scope of ESA

This ESA will focus primarily on two key sub-sectors: primary education (including pre-primary) and secondary education. Despite its relatively light coverage, the ESA aims to encompass all streams within these sub-sectors. The analysis will not be limited to government-run educational institutions; it will also comprehensively evaluate non-registered, private, and English-medium institutions. The scope of the analysis will extend across various dimensions, ranging from access to educational quality to governance. The intention is not to spread over too many sub-sectors, but to provide an in-depth examination of primary and secondary sub-sectors. However, the ESA will identify specific scopes based on guidance and discussions among members of the ELCG. Overall, the ESA will be guided by, but not limited to, the following key questions:

1. What key policies, goals, sector priorities and major reforms have guided the development of the education sector over the past five years, and prior to this period where applicable?
2. To what degree have the respective policy targets, objectives, and priorities been realized?
3. What notable accomplishments has the sector achieved in terms of providing equitable access to quality education services for diverse stakeholders?
4. What is the present status of the system’s resources, encompassing physical, human, and financial elements? How have these aspects evolved during the specified period?
5. What factors have contributed to the attainment of the policy objectives and targets?
6. What factors, obstacles, or bottlenecks have impeded the system’s capacity to meet the set goals and targets?
7. What are the pivotal concerns that the education ministries should prioritize to positively shape the developmental agenda of the sector? What key priorities should the MOE pursue in the next five years?
8. What resources and changes in capabilities, processes, and practices will be necessary to enhance the system’s capacity to provide quality education services in an equitable, inclusive, cost-effective, and sustainable manner?
9. What resources, strategic interventions, and quality assurance measures are required to ensure the delivery of relevant and quality education that meets the contemporary educational needs of 21st-century learners, aligning with SDG4 and Agenda 2041?
10. What partnerships currently exist for delivering education services, and how effective have they been? How can these and other partnerships be fortified to ensure improved sectoral performance, sustainability, and resilience?

Purpose of Assignment

The overall objective of this assignment is to support GoB in realizing their Transforming Education Agenda through conducting a comprehensive analysis of the entire education sector that will inform education policy reforms, design/development of the next Education Sector Plan (ESP) and the Education Sector Programs in primary and secondary sub-sectors.

The consultants, with guidance from the Core Thematic Technical Working Group (CTTWG), and in coordination with the GoB will be responsible for the collection, review and analysis of the total education sector. Education policy review and public expenditure review will also be part of the analysis and should be presented as independent chapters in the report.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

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 GoB:

1. Desk Review: 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.
2. Consultative Meetings: 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.
3. 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 Bangladesh the risks related to natural disasters, conflicts, political commitment, predictability of funding and capacity constraints etc. and their impact on the education system.
4. 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.
5. 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 completion
• Equity: Is there equal opportunity to participate in schooling. Are conditions similar for all pupils?
• 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, 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?

6. Analysis of system capacity:

• 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.

7. Report – Based on the findings of the ESA, the consultants will provide a draft 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 ESP, PEDP V and SEDP. Consultants will present the draft ESA findings to the critical stakeholders for feedback. The report will be finalized once all feedbacks are addressed.

Indicative data sources

Significant amount of data can be extracted from the latest Primary Education Management Information System (PEMIS), Secondary Education Management Information System (EMIS) and Digital Monitoring System (DMS), Education Survey – 2021 (BBS and UNICEF, 2023), the National Students Assessments – 2022 (DPE and UNICEF, 2023), Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2022 (HIES, World Bank and BBS – 2023), National Survey on Persons with Disability 2021 (BBS, 2023), Bangladesh Population and Housing Census 2022 (BBS, 2023) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2022 (BBS, 2023) have added additional data to explore and understand the education sector situation in the country.   

Consultants will use this range of data sources to understand the situation of education provision, quality and outcomes in the country. A further deep dive through national and sub-national consultations will be done to enrich the qualitative analysis of the education situation.  The education financing data will be analysed to understand the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of investments in various sub-sectors of education.

Please see the TOR for more details:

 ToR_Intl. Consultant_Education Sector Analysis_GPE SCG.docx

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

• 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.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

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:  

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. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.