Uganda: TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TEACHER COACHING/ MENTORSHIP CURRICULUM/ GUIDE
1.1 Background to Build Africa Uganda
Build Africa Uganda (BAU) was registered as a Ugandan NGO in 1996. BAU’s programs seek to combine earning and learning opportunities for children and their families. With 16 years’ experience working in rural areas of Uganda, BAU has strong working relationships with communities and local authorities. BAU is currently operational in the nine districts of Kumi, Ngora, Bukedea, Pallisa, Kibuku, Masindi, Kiryandongo, Oyam and Buliisa. Within these districts BAU is working with 154 primary schools and the surrounding communities.
Find Build Africa on http://www.build-africa.org for more information.
1.2 Background to the Early Years Learning programme
Currently, Build Africa is implementing 2 Early years Learning projects in Masindi region all aimed at ensuring that boys and girls in P1 to P3 receive support for their learning, both in and out of school, so that they acquire the fundamental skills they need to achieve a good level of educational attainment.
a) Supporting Transition and Early Preparation to School’ (STEPS)
Over three years (2015-2017), STEPS will work directly with more than 5,000 of the most disadvantaged pupils in the Masindi, Kiryandongo and Buliisa districts of Uganda covering 10 primary schools, including those with disabilities, orphaned children and those from elderly headed or child-headed households. Interventions have been designed to address key transition issues that prevent children learning foundation skills in the first few years of primary school which results in considerable disadvantages later in their school lives. Using a holistic approach, STEPS will engage with pupils, teachers and parents to build a support network around the youngest school children bringing about lasting change for the target communities. The planned activities will result in children having the skills they require for future learning and achievement in upper primary and beyond, supporting them to reach their potential and help their families overcome poverty.
b) Early Years Education Quality in Uganda: Advancing Learning Component (EQUAL)**
The project is working with children, parents and teachers in 15 schools in the districts of Masindi, Kiryandongo and Buliisa to ensure P1 to P3 school children have the fundamental skills that they need for future learning and achievement. The component targets working with 10,604 children in P1 to P3 (including 1,500 children from exceptionally disadvantaged groups – orphans, children with disabilities, etc.); 9604 parents and 60 teachers.
This project design has a three pronged approach, a) empowering teachers to improve teaching quality; b) empowering parents to promote learning at home; and c) working with teachers and older children to provide support to the young ones.
1.3 Project Description
Each of the 2 Early Years Learning projects seeks to achieve the following four outcomes:
Outcome 1: Young girls and boys receive both academic and social support for their learning, in and out of school, ensuring that they acquire the fundamental skills they need in order to achieve a good level of educational attainment.
Outcome 2: Teachers are skilled and inspired, which ensures they provide children friendly and good quality teaching, improving children’s engagement in class.
Outcome 3: Older children are empowered to mentor younger children, enhancing the learning and emotional support that those younger children receive at school, improving their academic and social skills.
Outcome 4: Parents are equipped to champion their children’s education, ensuring children are prepared for school and their learning is nurtured resulting in a positive learning culture for children at home.
2. Background to Teacher mentorship
Teacher mentorship can be defined as “helping novices speed up the learning of a new job or skill and reduce the stress of transition, improving instructional performance of novices through modelling by a top performer, and socializing novices into the profession of teaching” (Podsen & Denmark, 2000, p. 31). Usually, mentorship is the special relationship that is cultivated between a mentor and protégé whereby the mentor counsels, guides, and helps the protégé to develop both personally and professionally (Gardiner, Enomoto, & Grogan, 2000). The purpose of mentorship efforts range from orientation and induction of new teachers to instructional improvement with intent to change the culture of the school to a more collaborative learning environment (Podsen & Denmark, 2000).
3. Purpose of Technical Support
The curriculum/ guide is being designed to address Outcome 2 of the projects;
Outcome 2: Teachers are skilled and inspired, which ensures they provide children friendly and good quality teaching, improving children’s engagement in class.
This support is being undertaken to provide credible and useful step by step procedures on the operationalization of the coaching and teacher mentorship intervention in all the 25 schools and identify foreseen challenges of the intervention that could inform future interventions.
The chosen consultant will provide a clear set of guidelines and activities which embody the outcome given above. They will also maximise the integration of the activities and outcomes with other elements of the project.
4: Expected outputs from the Technical Support
A detailed report detailing the following:
Process to Identify a core set of areas[1] where teachers need additional guidance or learning support[2]
A design / identification of key resources addressing the core areas of support identified during research which the mentors can use to guide their work
Outline of a training programme for Head teachers and teachers to learn how to mentor and to test the resources identified
Checklist or guidance for mentor and mentee to identify areas of support needed and selection criteria and process of pairing of the teachers
Outline of the roles and responsibilities of the mentor and mentee and the head teacher in ensuring the success of the programme in their schools
Guidance and suggested programme of weekly /monthly/ termly activities for the teachers. Each activity should have a clear rationale and anticipated impact, including some suggested follow up activities which can be implemented as part of existing lesson plans
Outline model of how the mentor scheme will operate from 1) selecting areas / topics of intervention 2) Selection of mentors and mentees 3) Training of mentors and head teachers 4) Design of resources needed to support mentorship 5) Measuring outcomes of the programme from mentee, mentor and school perspective including the a monitoring guideline for head teachers, CCTS and BAU. This monitoring guide should propose when, how and how often the monitoring should be done by the various stakeholders.
5. Timeline for delivery
The final report and materials of this assignment must be delivered by the 30th Aug 2016
6.0 Skills and qualifications of consultancy team
The consultancy team should consist of one or more consultants who meet the following requirements:
§ Master’s degree in Education, coupled with advanced skills in research methodologies (preferred);
§ Experience in designing and / or supporting teacher training or mentorship schemes in East Africa (preferred)
§ Extensive recent experience working within/ engaging with the primary school system in Uganda (essential)
§ Familiarity with the Ugandan education and teacher training policies and systems (essential)
§ Excellent communication skills including report writing (essential);
§ Able to reliably access the Internet, as well as relevant national policy/planning documents and surveys (essential);
§ Fluent English in both writing and speaking (essential) but Runyoro and Swahili will be an added advantage;
§ Willingness to familiarise self with, and sign up to abiding by, Build Africa’s Child Protection Policy (essential).
7.0 Child Safeguarding
It is essential that the successful applicant familiarise self with, and sign up to abiding by, Build Africa’s Child Protection Policy.
We reserve the right to conduct background checks for all shortlisted applicants in line with our child safeguarding policy. This may include collecting references from past employers or commissioning organisations.
8.0Application process and timeline
Interested consultants must submit the following documents:
1) Technical proposal (with a maximum of 6 pages), which must include the following:
Outline of methodology to develop guidelines for the implementation of the coaching and mentorship strategy
A timeline of consultant work plan with number of days for desk research, primary research, material development and review , finalizing materials and final report
Sample of previous report written for similar consultancy work, with contact details for commissioning client.
The schedule for conducting a Training of Trainers.
2) Detailed budget submitted in Excel.
There is a fixed internal budget for the consultancy including professional fees, ancillary costs and support costs with the assumption that the consultant is based in Uganda or in the East Africa region (to minimise travel costs).
Consultants must have an existing legal right or hold the relevant visa to work in Uganda.
The selected consultant(s) will be chosen based on their relevant experience, robustness of their submission, availability as well as overall cost effectiveness.
[1] Sample include: ( classroom management, positive discipline, Scheming and lesson planning, development of resources from local materials, record keeping, exam setting and measurement, understanding different learning styles, identification of special education needs, Continuous assessment, Preparation of co-curricular activities for thematic classes )
[2] The mentoring guide will not address specific subject areas such as Mathematics or English or other subjects on the national curricula.
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