TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INSTITUTIONAL CONTRACT

Title of the assignment

Education Needs Assessment 2024

Purpose

Assessment of the Educational Needs in Rohingya Response for children and adolescents

Location

All refugee camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts in Cox’s Bazar

District, in Bangladesh

Estimated Duration

4 months

Reporting to Technical Supervisor of this assignment

Education Sector Coordinator, Cox’s Bazar

1.Background and Rationale for Assessment

The Cox Bazar Education Sector attempted to conduct an Education Needs Assessment (ENA) in 2022- 2023, however due to technical issues, the work could not produce a substantive report resulting the sector not having an ENA report for about 4 years. Since the influx of the Rohingya refugees in 2017, the education sector has gone through transformations and sector partners have been working tirelessly to deliver education services to the Rohingya children in camps of Cox Bazar.

1. Background information on the Response

From August 2017, extreme violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar led to the influx of 773,972 Rohingya refugees and currently 984,591 (as of 30 June 2024) refugees now live in 33 congested camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasanchar.1 In early 2020, the National Taskforce (NTF) authorised the use of the Myanmar Curriculum (MC) for education provision. However, the Learning Facilities (LFs) were closed down for a protracted period of 18 months on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the introduction of MC was delayed in the camps. During the closure of LFs, Rohingya children had very limited opportunities to continue their learning due to the absence of any provision for online teaching and learning. A caregiver-

1 UNHCR Population Figures, https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar_refugees

led home-learning programme was initiated but this was unsuccessful due to the low literacy levels of caregivers2. The LFs were reopened for face-to-face education in early 2022. The MC was introduced in secondary grades (grades 6-9) as a pilot in early 2022. Around 9000+ learners were initially enrolled in the Myanmar Curriculum Pilot (MCP). The success of the MCP resulted in the rolled-out MC for Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 classes in July 2022, replacing the informal curricula the ‘Learning Competency Framework Approach (LCFA)’ which was being used by Education Sector till then.

The Myanmar curriculum (MC) is being implemented with Burmese language as the medium of instruction. It is acknowledged in the Education Sector Strategy (2022) that both learners and teachers need support to develop literacy, numeracy and skills in both Burmese and English language. Developing an understanding of literacy and numeracy, in addition to the acquisition of basic skills and procedures, is vital to ensure children are able to learn in higher grades.

The Government of Bangladesh, together with Education Sector partners have successful rolled out the Myanmar Curriculum for Kindergarten (KG) to Grade 10 for the 2023-2024 academic year. As of July 2024, a total of 303, 064 (150, 127 female and 152,937 male) representing 76 percent enrolment of the 2024 JRP target for the Rohingya children and adolescents (aged 3-18) have access to quality inclusive learning services through 5,981 established learning facilities3. The attendance rate for both Rohingya boys and girls is at 82 percent which indicates positive up take of education in the camps. To ensure the quality of teaching and learning, teacher professional development activities including teacher training focused on pedagogy skills, subject knowledge, language competencies, assessment and inclusive education. According to the 2023 MSNA, about 21 percent adolescent girls (11 to 18 years) are enrolled in secondary education while attendance rate is about 83 percent. Some of the major reasons for low enrolment are family restrictions, needing to help at home and lack of male -female separated classes (representing 21%, 19% and 18% respectively)4.

3.Purpose, Objective and Expected Outcome of Education Needs Assessment (ENA) Purpose:

The primary purpose of this Education Needs Assessment (ENA) is to systematically generate evidence on the needs, gaps, and challenges faced by children in education at the camp, including the adjacent host community, teachers, parents, and education authorities. The findings from this ENA will:

• Inform Joint Response Planning (JRP): Provide critical data to inform the JRP of the Cox's Bazar Education sector in Bangladesh.
• Support Project Development: Supply evidence for the development and design of new project proposals for education sector partners.

2 The Rohingya language is didactic (spoken only). Most parents/caregivers have no or very limited knowledge of Burmese or English.

3 Education Sector 5Ws Dashboard_ July 2024

4 J-MSNA October 2023_ Reach

• Establish Baseline Values: Serve as baseline values for specific defined indicators and support policy advocacy
• Enable Evidence-Based Planning: Facilitate strategic planning by the Cox’s Bazar Education Sector and its partners through the provision of up-to-date, relevant, and comparable information on the education needs of the Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
• Highlight Successes and Achievements: Showcase the successes and achievements within the current educational initiatives to build upon.

Objective:

The objective of this Education Needs Assessment (ENA) is to inform evidence-based strategic planning by the Cox’s Bazar Education Sector and its partners through the provision of up-to-date, relevant, and comparable information on the education needs of Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

The ENA will provide insights, perspectives and recommendations from education stakeholders including children, parents/care givers, community, teachers, education partners, government authorities and donors on education provision using the Myanmar Curriculum.

Specific objectives:

Objective 1: Assess the extent to which the sector has ensured equitable access various stages of education provision for Rohingya children with special focus on adolescent girls and children with disabilities. (Enrolment and attendance of children in the learning facilities against the expected school going age children, Identify root causes (reasons) for the non-enrollment, absence and dropout).

Why some children are still not able to access education services and what else could be done. (What are the new challenges for Education? What can be done to include the vulnerable groups of children and adolescents?)

Objective 2: Assess the quality of education under the MC with reference to the teaching and learning process and progress of learners, the capacity of teachers to deliver the MC. (What are the views of the community/parents on the MC? Is there evidence from year end assessments that learning is taking place? Are teachers’ capacity improving based on their experience and children’ performance? Are the learning facilities equipped with adequate teaching learning material?)

Objective 3: Identify gaps and recommendations based on the analytical evidence produced above. This will include an analysis of the robustness of the system for collecting data from learning centre, collecting community, children and adolescent feedback and recommendations for their future learning opportunities (satisfaction, preferred language of instruction, religious/non-religious learning, service delivery modality, skill training etc.) (Which areas are prioritised by children and youth – possibly ranking according to order of priority? What are their thoughts on the current programming? Is it meeting the expectations of the community, children and youth?).

Objective 4. Implementation fidelity. How are various partners implementing the programme? What has worked in the recent rationalization exercise? What are the other requirements to complement the process? What are the capacity or other gaps that needs to be addressed?

Expected Outcomes of the Assessment

An analysis of education system performance based on the below:

Access and equity: Who goes and who doesn’t go to school and for what reason? What is the gender disaggregation? Analysis should include data on high risk/at risk children: children living with a disability, adolescent girls and children in female headed households) including why some children are still not able to access education services due to engagement in child labor.

This will focus on enrolments and learning achievements. Is there equal opportunity to participate in schooling for all Rohingya children? What are the issues affecting adolescent girls’ participation in education?

Internal efficiency: Are students completing the grade levels? How many drop out and what are the reasons for drop out?

Quality of learning: system capacity and management: analysis of learning assessments, management of teachers. Teachers’ qualification and teacher training programmes and Teacher performance in the classroom. Are the teachers able to understand and interpret the MC for effective teaching?

External efficiency: Structure of labor market, social impacts. Does education help Rohingya students find relevant employment after competing secondary education?

4.Description of the Assignment

This work assignment is expected to take four (4) months and will generate evidence around education provision for the Rohingya children with all data to be disaggregated by sex, age group (3 -5 years, 6-10 years, 11-14 years, 15-18 years) and by Host community and Rohingya Community. The list of key objectives outlined in the section above is indicative, not exhaustive, and is intended to present an overview of expectations.

5.Methodology

The incumbent will be expected to define a data collection method that covers both primary and secondary data collection. The secondary data collection and analysis will be undertaken through an initial desk review of key documents (Joint Response Plans, Education Sector Assessment reports, previous ENA, Rapid Gender Analysis, ASER Plus Report) and other relevant documents available. The secondary data review will outline information gaps, providing valuable inputs for designing the primary

data collection tool.

Desk Review

A desk review will be conducted to gather existing data and information on education in the selected affected areas. This will include reviewing relevant and recent assessments, reports, policies, and research studies related to education in the Rohingya response.

For the primary data collection, a mixed method approach will be followed for this assessment by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. This data will be verified with in-depth interviews, community-level focus group discussions and field visits. The analysis and synthesis of findings will also be built on triangulating the information from different stakeholders (partners, government, and programme staff and beneficiaries: caregivers and learners). Both quantitative methods (a survey questionnaire) as well as qualitative methods (participant observation, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions) and field visits, as appropriate targeting Rohingya and host community families. The questionnaire for this survey will be developed in collaboration with the Educations Sector’s Technical Consultative (TCG) and the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG).

The assessment will be conducted through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) will be conducted in camps and host communities. FGDs will be organized with learners 8 to 18 years old (homogenous groups with specific age groups should be used), and caregivers to strengthen the evidence provided by the quantitative data. KIIs with community leaders (Majis, Imams, Community Education support Groups (CESG)), parents and teachers will contribute to building a better understanding of the community perceptions. Most importantly, to strengthen the analysis of the needs of the most vulnerable groups, FGDs and KIIs will be carried out with out-of-school children, dropouts, children with disabilities, and adolescent girls. To cover the 3-to-5-year age group parents/ caregiver of them will be interviewed on a sample basis.

The assessment team is expected to propose a robust (with a statistical significance) methodology in consultation with the Education Sector, including sampling plan for both Rohingya refugees and host communities, as well as data collection tools that will allow them to gather relevant information for conclusive findings and recommendations. The process should be participatory, engaging local government officials, implementing and donor partners, key stakeholders and a wide cross-section of staff and beneficiaries, incorporating gender equity. In addition, this assessment will make use of secondary data obtained, including information about site characteristics, to ensure triangulation of primary data collected with data reviewed during the desk review.

6.SAMPLING STRATEGY AND GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE

The sampling for the quantitative survey will consist of a simple random sample, using as a sampling frame the UNHCR Family Count dataset for the Rohingya refugee camps and the 2011 census for the host communities. The geographical coverage of the assessment will focus on the following areas:

• All 33 Rohingya refugee camps from Ukhiya and Teknaf

• Host communities in Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar

The sample size for the quantitative data collection will be calculated with at least a 95% confidence interval (CI) and less than 5% margin of error. A probability sampling approach will be used to determine the sample of Rohingya camps and host communities that will ensure data representativeness at the camp level for the Rohingya community and Union level for host communities as well as disability inclusion. The quantitative data collection exercise will take the form of household survey targeting caregivers and learners 3 to 18 years old.

Purposive sampling will be used for the qualitative data collection, which will be used to triangulate the quantitative data findings and provide a better understanding of learners’ and the community’s perception.

7.Management

This assessment will be managed by the Education Sector, including its lead agencies (UNICEF and SCI), and coordinated by the Education Sector. The Sector will review and approve the deliverables (see schedule below), additionally Sector will ensure that the incumbent company receive the support needed from Implementing Partners including lists of teachers, parents, community leaders for the interviews and FGDs following data protection principles to be respected, specifically principles related to consent prior to sharing data. The Sector will also guide the selected company/consultant through the authorization and access process with the RRRC.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND DATA ANALYSIS

The consultancy is required to present a quality assurance plan around the methodology, including design, data collection, storage, entry, analysis, and synthesis. The consultant will also propose a detailed Data Analysis Plan for the assessment findings, presenting results for Rohingya refugee and host communities separately when applicable.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

It is expected that the proposal will include a section on the expected ethical challenges and issues that the assessment will need to overcome. The institution will also be responsible for getting Institutional Review Board (IRB) ethical clearance. IRB ethical clearance is needed before quantitative and qualitative data collection, and the proposal should include a clause on how to deal with interviewing adolescent boys and girls in humanitarian settings. The IRB approval letter will need to be attached in the annexure of the final report. The proposal will need to spell out how the UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis will be followed/met, rather than only mentioning that the assessment will abide by them.

The incumbent company/consultant will be expected to sign the Education Sector Code of Conduct which guarantees that all sector partners follow child safeguarding practices as well as the company needs to also have their own CSG policy

GENDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The assessment approach and data collection and analysis methods will be human rights based, including child rights based and gender sensitive. All data will be disaggregated by refugee/host community, sex,

age, gender and ability level. The institution is expected to abide by the UNEG Guidance on Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation, and the UN-SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicator.

8.Deliverables

• Inception report (including the detailed methodology)
• Data collection tools
• Draft report (initial findings and recommendations)
• Final narrative report (covering the assessment methodology: sampling methods including maps, tables, graphs) around 60 pages, detailing findings, 3 to 5 pages of executive summary, recommendations (discussed beforehand with the Project Team) and conclusions answering the research objectives.
• Presentation with the main findings and recommendations for both Rohingya refugee and host communities.
• Raw Dataset (database) with primary data collected and quantitative data compiled (available to all humanitarian stakeholders via humanitarian response). The transcript of the qualitative data collected will be shared with the IM officers of the Education Sector.

TIMEFRAME AND DELIVERABLE SCHEDULE

A proposed timeframe for the assessment is provided below. The entire assignment is expected to be completed within four months. This may be subject to change depending on the situation on ground at the time of the assessment implementation (including disruption by severe weather events), the recent pandemic situation and restrictions. The technical proposal should reflect this six-month overall implementation period.

Tasks

End Product

Duration

Tentative Deadline

Participation       in Inception Meetings

Inception meetings with Education Sector and Strategic Advisory Group and government counterparts on assignment and expected results (including what is expected in the

Inception Report)

1 week after signing contract

Preparation of an Inception Report

Should include:

A review of literature and brief reports and studies.

A methodology including:

Sampling

Key analytical questions

List of data to be collected and their sources (data framework and data list)

The technical approach Methods of data analysis

2 weeks

Possible    data    collection     challenges    and methods of overcoming data challenges

Work plan detailing activities and timelines

Develop Tools for data collection

Developing data collection tools and protocols, testing and revision of the tools, data collection training manuals and pretesting, as required.

3 weeks

Tool’s development 2 weeks and 1 week for piloting and tools finalization

Ethical Clearance

Necessary ethical clearance to be obtained prior to initiation of the data collection

Parallel task

Field teams and training

Selection of teams.

Training and orientation of interviewers and supervisors, including on child protection principles and on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Two weeks (parallel task with tools development)

Data       Collection Field work

Data collection (survey, focus group discussion and key informant interviews) and Supervision

Three weeks

Data entry and analysis, preliminary results report and First  Draft  with

fact sheet

Data entry, analysis and interpretation of key results and findings.

Submission of preliminary report.

Prepare and present preliminary findings to Sector and Advisory Team

3 weeks

Review    of    first draft                  and

incorporation    of comments

Review of the first draft by Sector and Advisory Group

Incorporation of comments and production of the second draft.

Development of related infographics

3 weeks

Report finalization

Review of second draft by Sector and Advisory Group

Incorporation of comments and production of the Final Report and infographics.

2 weeks

SUPERVISION

The Education Sector Coordinators will provide direct supervision on the assignment. The research institution’s Team Leader is expected to report the progress on a bi-weekly basis via either e‐mail, meeting.

9.Reporting requirements

An Inception Report should be submitted one month after the start of the assignment. After this point, written bi-weekly reports should be submitted by email.

10.Payment Schedule

• 20% of total fee upon submission of the inception report;
• 40% of total fee on submission of first draft report;
• 40% of total fee on submission and approval of final report.

11.Qualification requirement of the company/institution/organization

The institution should:

• Have at least 10 years of experience in the field of education, with an in-depth understanding of learning and learning outcomes.
• Have at least 10 years of experience in designing, planning, organizing and conducting large scale surveys and educational research.
• Demonstrate expertise in large-scale research design, data validation and data quality assurance.
• Avail a strong survey technical team led by a social scientist / expert having at least 10 years of relevant working experience.
• Avail previous experience with UN agencies, large NGOs or Government. The institution is expected to be able to leverage sufficient and experienced human resources to carry out the assignment effectively and efficiently.
• Experience relating to Education assessments and with field experience in refugee contexts is highly desirable.
• Preference will be given to research agencies that have sufficient experience of collecting data in the field on tablets using online platforms, in full conformity with data protection standards.
• Legal documentation that demonstrates the organization is registered to operate in Bangladesh must be presented.

The institution/consultant should appoint an English-speaking Team Leader with at least 10 years of proven work experience (scientist / expert having at least 10 years of relevant working experience) in leading similar assessments and in running complex surveys that deal with sensitive and confidential information, especially those associated with vulnerable individuals.

The Team Leader should:

• Be able to write clear, brief, analytical reports;
• Be able to communicate about data collection and data analyses in clear and simple terms;
• Boost a track record of undertaking such surveys with reputed organizations, governments, or similar, including the UN;
• Submit details of assessments undertaken and completed, name of the organizations with their contact numbers, year of undertaking and completion, coverage of survey work, sample of delivered reports, etc.