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UNICEF, guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, works together with partners in 190 countries and territories to promote and advocate for the protection of the rights of every child.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for personal and professional development that will help them develop a fulfilling career while delivering on a rewarding mission. We pride ourselves on a culture that helps staff thrive, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, a chance. 

In Nigeria, UNICEF works in a complex humanitarian and development setting to fulfill and protect children's rights in partnership with the government, civil society, children, and families.  UNICEF Nigeria is one of the largest UNICEF Country Offices globally - click the link to learn more about UNICEF in Nigeria: https://www.unicef.org/nigeria/

Background:

Nigeria is in the depths of a learning crisis. Approximately, 3 out of 4 children in Nigeria cannot read with meaning or solve simple math problems. Fewer than 1 in 20 of the poorest children & 1 in 7 children in rural areas have foundational skills.The lack of foundational literacy and numeracy skills affects children’s ability to learn high order skills and increases their risk of repeating classes or dropping out, thereby fuelling the out of school phenomenon. This is further reflected in national literacy rates where the average national literacy rate for Nigeria is 62% - nearly half of women (47%) and nearly one-quarter (29%) of men cannot read or write.

The learning crisis is stalling significant gains that Nigeria has made in getting more children to attend school. Multiple challenges affect the quality of education in Nigeria. If we don’t confront these, we risk stalling progress and losing gains already made for children. Key challenges include low and inequitable participation in early learning with just 63 per cent of five-year-olds engage in organized learning. At Basic education level, poor teaching and lack of teaching and learnings materials contributes to low learning achievement. At least 1 in 3 primary teachers are unqualified. Ineffective cascade training has done little to remedy these gaps. Many classrooms lack the teaching and learning materials needed to meet children’s needs.

As part of its efforts to improve teacher preparation, the Federal Ministry of Education through the National Commission of Colleges of Education has embarked on a review of the Pre-Service Teacher training curriculum also referred to as National Minimum Standards. The purpose of the review is to align the teacher training curriculum to the revised Basic Education Curriculum. Additionally, the NCCE would like to strengthen the FLN component of the National Minimum Standards by building on the lessons from the pre-service work on FLN that UNICEF and other partners have supported States with.

How can you make a difference? 

Purpose of the Assignment:

To undertake this work, the NCCE has requested UNICEF to hire a consultant to support their pre-service curriculum review. The assignment is critical to ensuring that Nigeria’s teacher training institutions embed effective and scalable FLN strategies in the foundational education system. This work will contribute to long-term education system strengthening and improve learning outcomes in early grades.

Deliverables/Output:

1.Inception report including methodology and timeline for the assignment

output:

Inception report

2.Desk review of the draft National Minimum Standards including a literature review of regional and global best practices in Pre-service teacher training

Output:

Report of the desk review of the draft National Minimum Standards

3.Revision (1) of the National Minimum Standards based on comments and inputs from the stakeholder consultation

Output:

Revised National Minimum Standards ( incorporating comments from stakeholder meeting)

4.Revision (2) of the National Minimum Standards based on NCCE and UNICEF comments

output:

Revised National Minimum Standards (incorporating comments from NCCE and UNICEF)

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in Education Development, Education Policy, Teacher Training, International Relations, or related field
• A minimum of 8 years of experience on improving learning quality, ideally with a focus on curriculum or learning materials development, teacher professional development, quality pedagogy and teaching and learning approaches in basic education.
• Demonstrable experience supporting the development, implementation and scale-up of effective approaches for improving learning quality, ideally focused on developing and rolling out quality, curriculum-aligned content for basic education focused on foundational literacy and numeracy.
• Proven experience in the integration of FLN principles into pre-service or in-service teacher education programs, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrated strong working knowledge and experiences in current global issues and best practices in Education.
• Knowledge of the Nigerian political landscape and recent developments in education.
• Familiarity with the Nigerian education context will be considered an asset.
• Experience working with UN agencies or other international development agencies.
• A good understanding of UNICEF’s programmatic areas.
• Ability to work to tight timeframes and flexibility to adjust to needs of government and UNICEF
• Ability to present ideas concisely for diverse audiences and to give
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset. 
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset. 

To view the complete TOR, click here ToR for FLN Mainstreaming in Pre-service Teacher Training .pdf

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about children’s rights and making a lasting difference on children’s lives, one of the global leading entities on children’s rights would like to hear from you.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

UNICEF is also proud of a diverse workforce who are profoundly committed to supporting the full realization of children’s rights, and in uplifting a rights-based approach in all that we do.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others  

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. 

All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.