Turkey: SHORT TERM INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL CONSULTANCY on “Intervention Model on Students who are at Risk of Leaving Formal Education”

UNICEF – Turkey

TERMS of REFERENCE (ToR)

SHORT TERM INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL CONSULTANCY

“Intervention Model on Students who are at Risk of Leaving Formal Education”**

(Ref: EDU/TURA/2017-B)

Links with the Country Programme Priorities:

UNDCS - Pillar 1: Sustainable, Inclusive Growth and Development.

Outcome 1.2.: By 2020, all underserved population groups have more equitable and improved access to integrated, sustainable and gender sensitive quality services (e.g. health, education, decent employment, and social protection systems).

Country Programme, Outcome 3: Gender equality among children enhanced and sustained into adolescence.

By 2020, the education and CP systems, NGOs and communities increasingly provide vulnerable girls and boys with gender-sensitive opportunities to realize their rights.

Output: 3.A. Education opportunities for adolescent girls and boys. By 2020, the education system, NGOs and families have increased capacity to provide and facilitate gender-sensitive and inclusive formal, non-formal and informal education opportunities for adolescent boys and girls.

Activity 4.2.: Provide capacity building for relevant staff on intervention programmes at schools.

ACTIVITY:“Intervention Model on Students who are at Risk of Leaving Formal Education”**

Duration

10 weeks

Duty station

Turkey, Ankara

I.BACKGROUND

Early school leaving is a serious and multi-faceted issue, which is a result of personal, social, economic, commu­nity, education and/or family-related reasons. As far as the factors relating to the education system, the findings show that aspects such as grade retention, absenteeism (low attendance) or adaptation problems in transition from lower to upper secondary level education play an important role in early school leaving rates. According to research findings[1], factors which influence early school leaving at the upper secondary level in Turkey include school-related causes (class repetition, failure, absenteeism), personal reasons (different school preferences, early marriage, girl-boy relationships), financial situation (working outside a school), peer-relationships and attitudes towards school (teachers, lectures, school dislike). The results of this research also shows that the majority of students repeating a grade with a percentage 74.5% and students dropped out of school with a percentage of 63.8% are students from the 9^th grade.

In order to address these issues the Ministry of National Education Directorate General of Secondary Education (MoNE - DGSE) in partnership with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) created an intervention model to contribute to preventing/decreasing possible school dropout and non-attendance of children (boys and girls) at risk in upper secondary education and to equip these children with relevant life skills, which fit the needs of the 21^st century. Within the scope of the Intervention Programme, MoNE - DGSE identified five key areas of Life Skills to be taught to the target group of children. The program was implemented for one academic year after school hours (2 days/week and 2 hours/day) within the school premises as well as using the venues offered by relevant local stakeholders involved.

The intervention programme yielded the following results:

1. Awareness of school teachers and school management was raised with regards to "at risk" students (girls and boys) in terms of grade retention or high non-attendance rates;

2. Evidence showed that as long as these students were cared for and approached with comprehensive strategies and felt cared for, it was possible to increase/improve their attendance and development of positive behaviours towards school, teachers and/or learning. Comprehensive strategies have included three aspects: prevention, intervention and compensation policies in order to reduce or prevent the occurrence of early school leaving;

3. “Business and life skills” which are covered by the programme are essential skills, necessary and useful in all parts of upper secondary students’ lives. The project provided an opportunity for disadvantaged students to develop these essential skills.

In order to improve and extend the existing Intervention Model in Turkey to be aligned with the nation-wide and school based systems carried out by other countries, MoNE - DGSE and UNICEF agreed to hire two experts (one international and one national) to compare international policies, models and implementation from other countries with existing intervention models including the elements of prevention, intervention and compensation and compile data and recommendations about other countries’ policies and strategies on how to combat early school leaving.

The report should provide not only data collection about policies or strategies of other countries on addressing early school leaving, but also include a compilation of relevant produced reports by internationally acknowledged organizations such as: the United Nations, the Education Audio-Visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA);Eurydice, European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network and Eurostat (European Commission), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank.

Purpose

To conduct an extensive review of international policies, models and implementation for tackling early school leaving especially for students at risk of leaving formal education at the upper secondary level focusing on the areas of: prevention, intervention and compensation.

In order to guarantee the relevance of international policies and implementation and to make a link with the Turkish national context, two experts will be hired, one national (this ToR) and one ınternational (separate ToR) and they will work together as a team.

II.SUPERVISOR

Education Specialist

III.COST

· Estimated Cost of Consultancy: Applicants shall present a detailed financial proposal that elaborates on daily costs on the basis of the below-mentioned programme and deliverables, including a total sum demanded. Travel and accommodation costs arising from planned visits and other costs related to administrative tools, communications, etc. shall be covered by the consultancy team.

· Payment schedule: The Contract for the Consultant will be issued in Turkish Liras.

The candidates are expected to specify in the financial proposal their daily rates, the number of anticipated working days for each deliverable, and provide the breakdown of the lump sum amount for each deliverable in Turkish Liras.

· Reservations: UNICEF reserves the right to terminate the contract and/or withhold all or a portion of payment if the rules and the regulations regarding confidentiality, ethics and procedures of UNICEF and the partners are not followed, the performance is unsatisfactory, or work/deliverables are incomplete, not delivered or fail to meet the deadlines.

In addition, UNICEF reserves the right to work with multiple Consultancy teams for the same assignment, if necessary. Where this is the case, all consultancy teams are expected to work in cooperation and coordination as required by the defined objective.

In case of submitting a proposal as a team with the participation of more than one expert, UNICEF will evaluate each team member separately and as per the rules will sign a separate contract with each team member.

Technical and financial proposals should be submitted in separate folders. After the technical evaluation, the financial proposals of qualified candidates will be evaluated. The technical evaluation will be completed based on the attached evaluation criteria form.

IV.Expected Results

The work expected and key deliverables from the expert include:

1. Review relevant policies, models and implementation from at least 10 countries related to early school leaving and especially for students at risk of leaving formal education.

2. Prepare a comprehensive report encompassing nationwide and school-based systematic implementation procedures for dealing with early school leaving which is not restricted to classroom activities.

3. Review the previously implemented or existing intervention model in Turkey and compare it with samples from other countries, followed by providing recommendations on how to link internationally relevant practices and experiences with the intervention model used in Turkey (1st draft) in order to improve the programme. This process should be conducted taking into account the perspective of gender equality in education.

4. Work in coordination with MoNE - DGSE and UNICEF in order to provide recommendations about the report. Reports will be finalised with the approval of UNICEF and MoNE.

5. Conduct interviews with key persons in MoNE - DGSE and UNICEF country offices.

6. Conduct coordination and consultative visits to other institutions, universities and experts doing similar work related to the intervention model to elicit key lessons learned and to generate insight into how the intervention model initiative can contribute to the retention of students in schools at the upper secondary level in Turkey.

7. Conduct a quality assurance activity that includes recommendations and comments from UNICEF staff, MoNE - DGSE and external experts (the experts to be identified by UNICEF-Education Section and MoNE - DGSE).

V.Deliverables:

Deliverable

Estimated Duration

1. Detailed work plan with timeline

1 week

1. Report about the international practices/experiences on early school leaving in secondary education, 1^st draft

3 weeks

1. Report on the recommendations of how to link the international relevant practices and experiences with the intervention model of Turkey, 1^st draft

3 weeks

1. Draft Final report

2 weeks

1. Final report

1 week

VI.Qualifications and Experience Required:

In order to achieve the objectives specified in these terms of reference, the consultant should have the following qualifications and experiences:

· Possess at least a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences or related fields.

• 5 years of substantial experience in the design, development, evaluation and implementation of programmes related to early school leaving.
• Have a full command of the Turkish National Education system and its regulations.
• Good command of written and spoken English.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to promote collaboration and consensus building.
• Having a Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree in education is an asset.

1

UNICEF is seeking Short Term Individual National Consultancy for Intervention Model on Students who are at Risk of Leaving Formal Education

UNICEF is requesting offers (Ref: EDU/TURA/2017-B) Short Term Individual National Consultancy for ‘Intervention Model on Students who are at Risk of Leaving Formal Education’
Please find below the detailed Terms of Reference (ToR), the financial offer template and the Personal History Form (P11 Form).
The candidates should send their P-11, the financial and technical proposal in separate files to kkurtul@unicef.org and hozturk@unicef.org with “Individual National Consultancy - Ref: EDU/TURA/2017-B” in the subject line. You may find the attachments in following link: http://unicef.org.tr/isolanaklaridetay.aspx?id=136

UNICEF Turkey Office is expecting to receive the documents by e- mail no later than 20 April 2017.
Please contact kkurtul@unicef.org or hozturk@unicef.org for further questions.