Consultancy Services for Assessment, Screening And Intervention For Inclusive Educational Wellbeing For Children With Special Needs

ANNEX 1 : Consultancy Terms of Reference

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR ASSESSMENT, SCREENING AND INTERVENTION FOR INCLUSIVE EDUCATIONAL WELLBEING FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

1. Background Information

Many contexts, even where there is political will to provide educational support to children with special learning needs, often lack sufficient processes and systems to do so. While overarching teaching strategies, such as universal design for learning, response to intervention, and differentiated instruction, can help all children learn, teachers who understand each child’s needs, including the needs of children with disabilities, can better help them learn. Therefore, identification, coupled with targeted follow-up, is essential to promoting quality education for all.

Disability and poverty are deeply interrelated factors, and many with disabilities face rampant exclusion from education, the workforce, and social and civic participation. Without identification, a child may struggle to learn to read due to visual acuity problems that are easily correctable with proper eyeglasses. Children with “invisible” disabilities, such as cognitive or emotional impairments, are particularly likely to go unidentified and may be branded as struggling learners, possibly discouraging interest in school, disincentivizing continued investment in education by resource-strapped families, and ultimately leading to school dropout. Indeed, an estimated 90% of children with disabilities are recorded to be out of school in developing countries.

The need to prioritize inclusive education beyond the boundaries of the school and classroom is real. A holistic and systematic approach is critical to strengthening technical and institutional capacities of the MOEs to effectively deliver educational services to most of the Disadvantaged groups who include out-of-school children and children with special needs. There is commitment to Inclusive Education under the broad approach of Child-Friendly Schools (CFS). However, even though the CFS approach can commendably improve teaching practices and attitudes of learners, some barriers are unique to children with special needs and cannot always be resolved through general improvements alone. There is an overall challenge to the national education system on the means to meet the education needs of children with disabilities and specifically, policy gaps which have not spelt out among other critical

aspects, how to adequately address learning and participation needs of students with disabilities; qualifications for special needs education teachers; safety and accessibility of the learning environment for children with special needs.

The Ministry of education culture and higher education (MOECHE) has developed and finalized the National Special Needs and Inclusive Education Policy in 2018 and Somalia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2019. However, children with disabilities remain invisible in Somalia and have very limited access to educational opportunities. Children with disabilities face many barriers including an inaccessible physical environment, lack of community awareness, negative attitudes and stigma as well as a lack of assistive devices and mobility aids1. Girls with disabilities in particular face a double burden due to their gender and disability. The population of children with special needs in the country is unknown. There is a general lack of accurate real-time reliable data on the numbers of children with disabilities, the type of disability and their geographical location. According to recent reports from DANIDA and ECHO funded EIE (Education in Emergencies) actions, enrolment rates were found to lowest for children with disabilities and other disadvantaged groups including girls, rural, refugees. Barriers to access for children with disabilities are considerable and include negative attitudes towards them, unfavorable learning environments without necessary assistive devices, and teachers lacking training on inclusive education. Girls with disabilities face additional barriers in accessing education due to gender stereotypes based on discriminatory and cultural norms such as marginalization, stigma, and the preference for boys to access education. Eliminating all barriers to education including those related to gender, disability and special needs is a priority area in the ESSP.

Save the Children plans to improve the access to education for

children with disabilities through (a) identification and screening/assessment of children with disabilities;

(b)   conducting community awareness raising and enrolment campaign; (c) provision of equipment, assistive devices and teaching materials to children with disabilities.

SCI plans the following:

▪         Screening/assessment for children with disabilities/special needs in schools.

▪          Conducting community awareness and enrolment campaign targeting children with disabilities.

▪         Provision of equipment and assistive devices for children with disabilities in the supported schools.

Consultancy objective

The objective of the assignment is to gather information for decision-making and intervention in the following four areas:

i.      Asses and Screen children living with disability across program target schools in two districts

Baidoa and Beletweyne in 33 schools supported by ECHO.

ii.    Provide in-depth information (Data) and needs to stakeholders (parents/caregivers, SCI, CECs and MOE)to inform decision such as the kind of equipment and the type of assistive devices needed to provide specialized support/intervention

iii.   Provide recommendations and way forward to improve and support the access of educational opportunities for children with disabilities

iv.   Scope of Work

The consultant should consider the purpose of each assessment and gather initial information at the onset of the process. The following are some general considerations

a)   Identify and conduct screening of children with disabilities in 33 program supported schools (Baidoa: 18, Beletweyne: 15)

b)   Visit classrooms to gather information needed and identify different type of disabilities children are facing

c)    Involve in the assessment, parents, other family members, related service practitioners, and clarify what roles will these individuals assume (for example, facilitator, observer, assessor) are to play in the assessment

d)   Employ different methodologies, formal testing, observation, interview that suit best the child

e)   Prepare in-depth report the detail and provide information’s needed to address challenges with recommendations of the type of assistive devices, equipment and materials needed to be supported on each child

f)     Identify and document skills or behaviours that are important to the child in his or her environment

g)   Document the adaptations are necessary for the child to display optimal skills (for example, use of an alternative communication system, adaptive seating, assistive technology

Methodology

•      The lead consultant will be required to engage experts that are able to provide detailed screening of children living with disabilities

•      The assessment methodologies will vary depending on the type of the disability of the child

Deliverables

The following services and outputs are expected:

i.    Detailed technical & financial proposal

ii.    Detailed work plan for undertaking the assessment.

iii.    Assessment Report and Debrief on the findings

iv.    Conduct dissemination workshop for stakeholders on the findings of the assessment

v.    Workplan on the way forward

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE OF THE LEAD CONSULTANT

To qualify for this assignment, the consultant must have the following mandatory professional experience and knowledge

o    Advanced university degree or masters in disability inclusive education, or Education related field is a MUST for at least 2-panel experts including a Lead Consultant

o   At least seven (7) years of experience in special needs educations assessment and interventions

o   must have excellent communication skills to interact with students, parents, and

educator

o    Be able to work with students in both one-on-one and group settings, while

understanding the abilities and needs of each child

o    Must be able to employ different techniques such as encouraging, creative, and flexible, with the ability to motivate students and inspire the confidence needed to attempt new

tasks.

o   Understanding the key issues involved in early childhood education; gender dynamics in Somalia

o   Outstanding communication skills, with excellent command of spoken and written English and Somali

1.    Contract Management and reporting arrangements

SC will contract a potential consultant with special education needs background to conduct the screening of children with special needs.

On the other hand, the consult will directly report to the technical specialist-Education in Emergencies. He/she will closely work with field based project teams and respective state level ministry of education (Southwest and Hirshabelle).

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

The minimum required documents;

I.         Technical proposal clearly capturing the approach and methodology

II.         Financial proposal

III.         Past similar experience - please attach previous stamped contract IV. Relevant CVS of the lead consultants

V.        Firm/ individual profile

Supplier Sustainability Policy and the included mandatory policies: Click Here to Access

Supplier Sustainability Policy and the included mandatory policies:

APPLICATION SUBMISSION FORMAT

Applications can be submitted by either:

Electronic Submission via ProSave

➢   Submit your response via ProSave in accordance with the guidance provided in the below document:

➢   Intersted applicants are encouraged to apply via Ariba system. Please request the Ariba Invite via email sending your company profile and Business registration certificate. Please address your request to [email protected].

Electronic Submission via Protected Email box (Optional)

➢   Email should be addressed to [email protected]

➢   Note – this is a sealed tender box which will not be opened until the tender has closed. Therefore, do not send tender related questions to this email address as they will not be answered.

➢   The subject of the email should be “PR383398 Consultancy service for screening and assessing disability children in ECHO Targeted Schools– ‘Bidder Name’, ‘Date’’.

➢   All attached documents should be clearly labelled so it is clear to understand what each file relates to.

➢   Emails should not exceed 15mb – if the file sizes are large, please split the submission into two emails.

➢   Do not copy other SCI email addresses into the email when you submit it as this will invalidate your bid.

Submission Deadline: 6th November 2023