UNDP Jobs - 87870- Education Specialist – Technical Committee on Educ

Education Specialist – Technical Committee on Education – Part Time (Greek Speaking)

Location :

Nicosia, CYPRUS

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

04-Nov-2019

Application Deadline :

27-Oct-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 months (up to 104 days part-time)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) works to support the ongoing peace and confidence building process by promoting initiatives that encourage dialogue and cooperation between the communities of Cyprus.

The European Commission, as part of its support to confidence building measures, initiated a new "Support to the Bi-Communal Technical Committees Facility". This support facility will seek to enable cooperation and to build confidence with a view to contributing to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue.

The Bi-Communal Technical Committees were established by the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities under the auspices of the United Nations, to address issues that affect the day-to-day life of people, through encouraging and facilitating greater interaction and understanding between the two communities.

Since 2017, the activities of the Technical Committee for Education (TCE) have mostly focused on the educational programme “Imagine”. This has brought together 3665 students and 397 teachers from more than a hundred Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot schools from all areas of Cyprus in the last two academic years (2017-2018, 2018-2019). “Imagine” takes place under the auspices of the TCE and implemented by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) and the Home for Cooperation (H4C) with the support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.

The possibility of EU funding now allows the TCE to expand its activities towards the production of lesson plans, addressed to primary and secondary education teachers.

This new project aims to: 1) create new educational material (30 model lesson plans) and 2) encourage teachers to share high-quality lesson plans they have already created. All lesson plans will be based on the TCE’s mandate to: ‘Create and distribute specialized educational materials that promote peacebuilding, intercultural dialogue, human rights education, and anti-racist education.’

The production of new educational material is important because it will gather for the first time quality educational materials—based on principles of the Council of Europe and UNESCO—that promote peacebuilding, intercultural dialogue, human rights education, and anti-racist education in both communities. Some of this material already exists but it is scattered and unorganized; other has to be created from scratch. This project will mobilise existing knowledge and expertise across both communities to put together a pilot package of lesson plans that will constitute the basis for further work in the future.

For aim #1, the TCE will employ experts to create the educational material from scratch. The same experts will be in charge of aim #2, by reaching out to teachers in order to share material they have already created which broadly conforms to the principles above, the editing of such material where required, and its translation.

Within this context, UNDP is seeking two local consultants to support the project. Both must be fluent in English, and one also in Greek while the other in Turkish.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of Programme and Communications Analyst and direct supervision of the ?CE, the education consultants will;

Create new and gather existing educational material for all educational levels
Review the materials and indicate how they fit in relation to existing curricula and how they correspond to existing objectives
Supervise their translation in Turkish, Greek, and English
Collaborate with a professional webpage developer to create a trilingual webpage, and monitor the webpage (uploading materials, monitoring the interest)
Reach out and encourage teachers to send their own educational materials
Examine the received material and suggest or make appropriate edits or changes

Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the consultancy for part-time work:

Create 30 lesson plans (according to the structure to be provided) based on part time work
Encourage teachers to share their lesson plans
Edit and finalise the lesson plans (including the supervision of two translators for their translation into Turkish, Greek, and English)
Collaborate with trainers who will train teachers how to use the lesson plans
Work with teachers to pilot the lesson plans that are created
Supervise the creation and running of a tri-lingual webpage
Other administrative duties for the TCE as need arises.

Competencies

Professionalism

Shows pride in work and in achievements.
Demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter.
Is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results.
Is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns.
Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations.

Communication

Speaks and writes clearly and effectively.
Listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately.
Asks questions to clarify and exhibits interest in having two-way communication.
Tailors language, tone, style and format to match the audience.
Demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.

Planning & Organizing

Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies.
Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required.
Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work.
Foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning.
Monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary.
Uses time efficiently.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

B.A. or higher degree in education, history, sociology, anthropology or political science.
Specialization in multi-cultural education, peace education, human rights education, anti-racist education or any other related field is an asset.

Experience:

Experience of minimum 12 months in multi-cultural education, peace education, human rights education, anti-racist education or any other related field.
Experience in developing educational/learning materials.
Knowledge of the Cypriot context and previous experience working in bi-communal projects is an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English.
Knowledge of Greek is mandatory.

Other requirements:

Nationals or others legally authorized to work in Cyprus.
Valid driving license.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

CV: Submission of CV
References: Contact details of 3 references.
Financial Proposal: Applicants are requested to submit a daily financial proposal for a 2 days full time work per week (up to 104 working days, working day will be calculated as 8 hours in total (half an hour break and 7.5 hours of work) could be pro-rated to the actual hours works, and shall cover all expenditures including fees, health insurance, vaccination, international (all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel) or local travel (place of residence to office and office to place of residence), cost of living and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services. Leave benefits (annual, sick, paternity, maternity) are not applicable to Individual Contractor and absent days including weekends and office holidays are not payable. The consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own office equipment (laptop, mobile telephone, internet connection, etc.).

Evaluation / Selection Process:

All applicants will be screened against qualifications and the competencies set above. Candidates fully meeting the requirements will be further evaluated based on the criteria below.

Technical Criteria (CV review and interview) – 70% of total evaluation– max. 70 points

CV review: 40 points:

Educational qualification as defined in the ToR (20 points)
Experience as defined in the ToR (20 points)

Only candidates who obtained at least 70% of points from the CV review (who will score at least 28 points) will be eligible to be invited for an interview.

Interview/Written Test (written test is optional): 30 points

Relevant work experience lesson plan design and/or teaching and/or curriculum development: (10 points)
Experience in facilitating and designing bi-communal projects: (10 points)
Knowledge of the Cypriot context: (5 points)
Communications and interpersonal skills: (5 points)

Only those individual consultants who obtained at least 70% of points from both the CV and interview (49 out of 70) will be considered for financial proposal evaluation.

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation – max. 30 points.

Financial scores will be calculated using the formula [lowest offer / financial offer of the candidate x 30].

UNDP applies the “Best value for money approach” – the final selection will be based on the combination of the applicants’ qualification and financial proposal.

Payment Term:

Monthly payable upon submission of the monthly; certification of payment form, time-sheet and the monthly report upon approval of UNDP.