| Terms of ReferenceBaseline & Endline StudyBuild Back Better Education for Children at the Secondary level in Odisha and AssamIntroduction:Save the Children (SCBRB) is India’s leading independent child rights organization and has been functional in the country for over 70 years. In April 2008, SC India became a fully-fledged independent member of SC Alliance and is registered as ‘Bal Raksha Bharat’. Since then, it has changed lives of more than 11.7 million children, across 19 states, reaching them directly and indirectly through 4 core thematic areas: Child Survival, Education, Child Protection and Humanitarian & Disaster Risk Reduction. We believe ‘every child deserves the best chance for a bright future’, and that’s the reason we are committed to ensuring children not only survive, but thrive.Context:In the 2011 Census, about 73% of the population was literate, with 81% for males and 65% for females. National Statistical Commission surveyed literacy to be 77.7% in 2017–18, 84.7% for males, and 70.3% for females. While enrolment in higher education has increased steadily over the past decade, reaching a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 26.3% in 2019, there remains a significant distance to catch up with tertiary education enrolment levels of developed nations, a challenge that will be necessary to overcome to continue to reap a demographic dividend from India’s comparatively young population.A report by Oxfam India indicated that children studying in government schools were hit particularly hard, with more than 80 percent of government school students in Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttar Pradesh not receiving any educational materials during the lockdown .While the complete education system and its facilities stalled due to the pandemic all across the country, it is imperative to pay more attention to the issues exacerbated by the closure in the context of children living in tribal and remote areas. The stringent shift to online learning failed to be a one-stop solution for the tribal children or children living in remote areas who were expected to fit in the urban-centric education system. Accessible quality education has been a challenge even in regular times for these children, post-pandemic it has become more challenging. Poor infrastructure in schools, lack of technological resources, untrained teachers, and lack of caregivers’ attention to children’s education are some key issues that act as hindrances to access to quality education.Integration of Informational, Communication Technologies (ICT) is being perceived as one of the solutions to improve the access and learning outcomes of children but we must not overlook the persistent challenge of bringing marginalized children closer to technology, especially in the remote areas belonging to low-income communities. The tech-enabled solutions in metropolitan/urban areas might be completely irrelevant and possibly irresponsible in such areas. Hence, solutions are required to be “made to fit” the challenging environment.With the proposed proposition, we will be leveraging our experience in the field of education by using ICT for learning, developing a safe and learner-friendly environment, and strengthening the role of relevant stakeholders in the process of learning for children.Intervention logicSave the Children is leading a vitally important component of COVID-19 recovery. We are uniquely suited to meet the emerging challenges. Our Safe Back to School (SB2S) movement in 11 states is unequivocally about children and fits seamlessly with our mission, technical capacity, and global presence. It is ‘mission critical’ to deliver our breakthrough objective ; we need to ensure children are supported with education continuity and get back into education when it is safe to do so. Considering the magnified challenges related to school facilities, lower learning levels, and the rising educational aspirations of the younger generation we identified technology as an enabler in our Education Strategy 22-24 for engaging learning practices. Also, keeping in view the scenario across many schools in the states, there is a definite need for innovation in the teaching process for all government schools to bridge the learning gap and promote experiential learning through SMART tools to fulfill the needs of children from diverse backgrounds inclusively, especially for girls and children from a marginalised background.To overcome these challenges, the school management will have to adopt innovative and child-centric teaching practices so children are gradually reintroduced to learning rather than learning to face examinations. Introducing SMART Classrooms will facilitate experiential learning for children. The project intervention will support improving learning outcomes through encouraging innovative technology and child-centric pedagogy and strengthening community and school engagements to enhance community participation in school management. Besides, there is a need to strengthen the infrastructure (though schools are open with intermittent closure during the pandemic, many in the proposed locations were found to be in poor dilapidated condition) through repair and refurbishment to ensure children’s wellbeing and make schools resilient. Hence, we would be applying our approach BLES to improve the infrastructure of the schools. Besides, building a solid STEM foundation plugs the gaps in a lopsided theory-based curriculum and is also the best way to ensure that students are exposed to Math, Science, and technology in their early years. STEM capitalizes on the inane curiosity of students and instilling an interest at an early age could spark a lasting desire to pursue a career in any of these fields. An experiential learning approach creates interest among students around STEM especially relevant for academic support.For detailed information, please check the complete version of the advert attached below |
Apply by: 10 Feb 2023