The National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) is an organisation dedicated to strengthening partnerships within civil society and between civil society and government in order to achieve South Africa’s national goals for basic education. It strives both to support and to influence the agenda for reform of education.
In support of the DBE, Unicef has developed a two-pronged intervention to:
firstly direct support to reading programmes as reading is the key challenge in the education sector. More than 70% grade four students are unable to read for meaning. And while SA displayed the third-steepest improvement between 2011 and 2016 out of the 43 countries (after Morocco and Oman), the Covid-19 pandemic risks erasing any reading deficit gains made.
And secondly to improve learning and learning outcomes by strengthening teacher capacity to address specific learning needs of all learners, as well as the senior management team’s capacity at the school level in providing effective leadership and oversight. Central to these capacity building interventions, is incorporating and encouraging the active role of parents in improved learning. This too, along with school governing bodies, will promote accountability, recognized as one of the biggest challenges in shifting the trajectory of educational outcomes for children in this country.
The concrete outcomes will include:
Learners to have increased access and exposure to reading resources through print and broadcast media, resulting in improved learning outcomes.
Teachers to be able to effectively implement and report on the trimmed curriculum and improve their assessment practices to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.
School leadership, governance and district officials capacity to lead during time of crisis to be enhanced through increased accountability measures and parental involvement.
The consultant being a member of the NECT team, will support the DBE with efforts on continuity of learning, using traditional and innovative approaches, and specifically support curriculum trimming as part of the curriculum recovery programme.
Led by the DBE, in collaboration with UNICEF, the consultant for curriculum recovery, on behalf of the NECT, will undertake three activities listed under the heading scope of work below.
Scope of work:
Develop a framework to review the trimmed curriculum in consultation with DBE and PEDs, drawing on international experience and evidence from other countries.
Conduct a detailed review of the revised curriculum to determine the extent to which: a) the core content including skills, knowledge, attitudes and values is coherent and aligned across the different grade levels within specific content and/or subject areas; b) the core content including skills, knowledge, attitudes and values supports deep and meaningful learning; c) the revised curriculum contents are aligned to and adaptable to relevant classroom assessment practices; d) the revised content maintains the learning trajectory for learners, without compromising learners’ transition between and within the grades. The review will involve focus group interviews with key role players involved in the development of the trimmed curriculum and will focus on the subjects determined by the DBE. Initial findings will be presented to the DBE and provincial staff involved in the curriculum trimming for review and validation before findings are disseminated to other education role players.
Develop a QA framework for the review of implementation of the trimmed curriculum, drawing on insights from International experience and evidence both from other countries and previous national efforts. The framework will contain elements as set out above, which will be applied to determine the tracking and implementation of the revised curriculum. In addition, relevant information from current projects implemented by the DBE/NECT regarding curriculum review and monitoring will also be used to develop the framework.
Print and make available the QA framework for monitoring curriculum implementation to all teachers, school leaders and district officials in the 650 schools.
Conduct workshops (face to face and on-line)to develop the capacity of district officials on the application of the quality assurance framework in schools. In addition, district officials will be required to train and support school leaders and teachers in all schools that they support, to use the quality assurance framework in their specific context.
Work with the MQA unit in the NECT to obtain information on the extent to which the revised curriculum affects the teaching and learning in schools.
Time frames:
The engagement requires that the Consultant spend up to ten days a month to implement the agreed upon activities.
The work schedule will be updated monthly by the Consultant and the National Programme Manager of the NECT.
The duration of the engagement is from April 2020 until termination in writing by either party.
Should you be interested in this opportunity, kindly send your profile and application to [email protected] before closing date.
For more about the NECT, refer to https://nect.org.za/