Translation and development of Literacy primers for primary 2 and 3 textbooks to 5 national languages in The Republic of South Sudan.

PART I - PURPOSE OF THIS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR SERVICES

1. Background

1.1 UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

1.            background and objectives:

The Republic of South Sudan, as indicated in its Constitution, aims to promote the national and foreign languages, as a right for every child to learn in his/her home language. The General Education Act 2012 specifies that the language of instruction for lower primary (P1-P3) shall be mother tongue. Moreover, the National General Education Policy 2017 – 2027 (p. 43) stipulates that MoGEI will pursue policy reforms, related to language (s) in education for improving learning outcomes stating that:

(a)          “The Ministry will promote the teaching of all indigenous languages as national languages in schools as well as the English language, the medium of instruction, in accordance with the constitution.”

(b)          “The Ministry will develop the national standards for indigenous language; train teachers of the national languages and develop, print and distribute learning materials for national languages.”

(c)           “The Ministry will ensure that the medium of instruction will be indigenous language of the area in Early Childhood Development and primary 1 through 3 and encourage schools in urban settings to choose to use more relevant or widely used national languages. English language shall be taught as a subject concurrently with National Language in ECD and Primary 1-3 to ensure learners develop linguistic competence in English to be able to make the transition to using English as the medium of instruction as from Primary 4”

As a priority to improving the learning outcomes, the General Education Sector Plan   2017 – 2022 emphasizes the development of national and foreign languages. The newly approved South Sudan national curriculum also emphasizes that the medium of instruction in lower primary should be in mother tongue and from upper primary will be in English.  Therefore, the Ministry of General Education and Instruction (MoGEI), with support from GPE, worked with   UNICEF to develop a policy for role of national languages in education of children. As a first step, the MoGEI has prioritized the translation of the existing textbooks for the lower primary (P1-3) into 5 national languages to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of children in South Sudan. Through the GPE 1 programme a conflict sensitive analysis on language selection was conducted. After detailed  deliberations,  MoGEI leadership and other education stakeholders   reached a consensus that five local languages, including Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Toposa and Zande, be developed, as a pilot, to a level of primers for primary 1 to 3 to support the learning outcomes. This activity was jointly funded, with Room to Learn (RtL) supporting 2 languages, Bari and Toposa, and Dinka, Nuer and Zande,  under the GPE programme and this pilot programme,  sequence was developed for the five national languages, along with translation of   textbooks for primary 1 into Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Toposa and Zande. To complete this activity there is need to translate the remaining textbooks, primers, and teacher guides for P2 and P3 into the five national languages of Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Toposa and Zande, as indicated in the ESPIG programme document and the results framework.

2.            PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE:

The purpose of this assignment is to support MoGEI to accomplish the following:

1.            Development of literacy teaching and learning materials for grades P2 to P3 as well as capacity-building for teachers and inspectors to use these materials effectively.

2.            Translation of P2 and P3 content of textbooks into 4 subjects of Math, Science, Social Studies and Religious Education.

3.            SCOPE OF WORK:

The focus of the assignment will remain on the translation and the development of literacy and numeracy primers for the 5 languages of Bari, Dinka, Nuer, Toposa and Dinka: and translation of the 4 subjects into 5 national languages.  Led by MoGEI, and supported by UNICEF, a technical service provider will develop the primers.   MoGEI and UNICEF will oversee the progress on the planned work and will furnish information on the completion of the agreed deliverables to trigger payments.