Country: Lao People's Democratic Republic (the)
Closing date: 02 May 2016
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Vientiane, Lao PDR is looking for a qualified international consultant to provide technical assistance in the review and revision of the Pre-primary curriculum and the associated teachers’ guidebooks, to be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Sports with the support of UNICEF for a period of approximately 97 working days spread over the period May to December 2016.
Duties and responsibilities:
The Consultant will undertake a thorough revision of the current pre-primary curriculum and the teacher’s guidebooks for Units 1 to 3. This revision will result in a clearly-structured pre-primary curricula along with simple, user-friendly guidebooks which are based on a child-centred approach.
The key tasks and outputs of this consultancy are as follows:
Task 1 (off-site): Desk review of the relevant documents on the situation of ECE in Lao PDR and education sector strategy. Review of School Readiness Competencies (SRCs)
Output1: Documents related to ECE and education sector strategy and School Readiness Competencies reviewed.
Task 2 (in-country)**:** Review the current pre-primary curriculum in light of the key findings of the review of the School Readiness Competencies. This review will require a visit to a sample of at least 5 pre-primary classes, in order to inform the appropriateness and relevance of the curriculum framework.
Output2: Field visit to at least in 5 pre-primary classes conducted. Based on review the current pre-primary curriculum and site visited, the new pre-primary curriculum revised, include contents mapping worked out.
Task 3 (in-country): Organize a 5-day workshop with MoES to review and finalize SRCs and Curriculum framework, include contents mapping.
Output 3: School Readiness Competencies, pre-primary curriculum framework and contents mapping revised and finalized.
Task 4 (off-site): Revision of Units 1 to 3 Teacher’s Guidebooks and the specific instruction for designs for appropriate pictures aligned with the revised curriculum and teacher’s guidebooks contents.
Output4: Teachers’ Guidebooks for Units 1 to 3 drafted, the instruction for appropriate pictures finalized aligned with the revised contents.
Task 5 (off-site): Develop guideline and tools for field tryout of the revised teacher’s guidebooks unit 1-3. Submitted to MOES working team to plan for field tryout.
Output 5: Clear guideline and tools for field tryout developed.
Note: Based on the guidelines and tools for the field tryout, MoES and UNICEF will undertake a field tryout. The results of the tryout will be documented by MoES/UNICEF and shared with the consultant to inform the finalization of the Teacher’s Guidebooks.
Task 6 (in-country): Finalize contents and common agreements on the pictures aligned with the contents of teachers’ Guidebooks unit 1-3.
Output 6: The contents and the concept of the picture of the teacher’s Guidebooks for Units 1 to 3 finalized.
Qualifications and experience required:
Post-graduate academic qualification in Early Childhood Education or relevant areas required
Professional experience in the designing of early childhood education curricula required
Experience in developing and/or reviewing ELDS preferable
Familiarity with the ECE sector in Asia and the professional experience to work with the government (MoES) on early childhood education preferable
Strong English writing and communication skills required
How to apply:
To apply for this consultancy, applicants are required to submit an expression of interest to undertake the assignment/consultancy and proposals. Send these together with a completed Personal History Form (available from UNICEF) to:
Human Resource Unit
UNICEF, P.O. Box 1080, Vientiane, Lao PDR
or email to: laohrrecruitment@unicef.org
Tel: 856 (21) 315200-04
Closing date for receiving applications is: Monday, 2 May 2016
UNICEF is a non-smoking working environment. Female candidates are encouraged to apply. Only-Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for interview.