INVITATION TO TENDER FOR YEMEN REF# PR/ADEN/EGRA/2022/281 FOR EARLY GRADE READING ASSESSMENT (EGRA) IN SOUTH YEMEN.

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

Gateway to Education is a USAID funded project which aims to ensure safe and equitable access to quality education through the formal school system for Yemeni boys and girls, in both host and internally displaced persons (IDP) communities, and for those with disabilities. The project focuses on supporting the Ministry of Education (MoE) to strengthen education actors with ongoing trainings and follow up, providing materials to support literacy, numeracy, and active learning, while reducing conflict-induced trauma through the integration of social and emotional learning, restoring school routines to increase normalcy, trust, and enrolment, and expanding inclusive approaches that empower all girls and boys to complete their education.

The objective of this study is to systematically measure early grade reading skills of primary school children, to identify any gaps in their skills, and to spur more effective efforts to improve their performance.

Based on the findings of the analysis, the consultant will recommend strategies for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of delivering interventions which would boost the early grade reading skills of children in Yemen.

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

The consultant firm is expected to follow this detailed Statement of Work (SoW).

Introduction

This SoW presents the requirements for an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in Yemen. This SoW focuses on student testing and relevant project performance data collection, informed by USAID’s approach to and guidance on Early Grade Reading Assessment.[1]

Save the Children is conducting the “Gateway to Education Activity” (Gateway) in Yemen from 2019 to 2024. Gateway ensures safe and equitable access to quality education through the formal school system for Yemeni boys and girls, in both host and IDP communities, and those with special needs. Gateway works with schools and children in Aden, Lahj, and Al Dhale’e Governorates. The Gateway MEAL plan has three overarching foci: data-driven programming, participatory MEAL, and systems strengthening. Data-driven approaches must measure children’s learning and the Gateway EGRA activities encompassed in this SoW will be coordinated and conducted in collaboration with Save the Children Yemen and the Ministry of Education.

Purpose

Save the Children is seeking a Consulting Organization to lead and conduct an EGRA to measure grade 1, grade 2 and grade 3 reading levels and what is occurring in classrooms and schools related to early grade reading learning delivery. This SoW encompasses EGRA data collection with a cross-sectional design using a stratified random sample in Q4 2022 to Q1 2023[2] and a nested study to understand children with disabilities early grade reading skills and needs. The EGRA will be used for the means of verification for MoE policymakers, education practitioners, and USAID Gateway implementers with a snapshot of pupil reading performance in G1 to G3 with respect to MoE benchmarks.

The secondary purpose of this SoW is to assess the extent of teacher and school principal performance to deliver early grade reading in the classroom. Data collection will establish the teaching and learning conditions and needs in the schools, including teacher well-being and time-on-task measurement related to reading, writing, and comprehension, to inform Gateway and other education programming and use EGRA and teacher/principal focused data to address needs and gaps identified. Importantly, the EGRA will be implemented with Ministry of Education staff, including adapting the tool, implementing the tool, analyzing results, and sharing findings from the EGRA data collection to support Ministry staff to identify EGRA best practices and re-establish early grade reading programs more broadly.

The consulting group will collect data at the child, teacher, school principal and school-level to measure: (1) grade 1, grade 2 and grade 3 reading skills using EGRA, students’ norms, attitudes and engagement in reading activities using observational and survey tools; (2) teacher reading instruction practices and behavior, knowledge and attitudes and overall wellbeing using survey and interview protocols; and (3) teacher and school principal reading support practices and teaching and learning materials, knowledge and attitudes using survey and interview protocols.

Objectives

The key research questions for this SOW are:

• What are children’s reading fluency, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and writing levels, as measured by EGRA in Yemen?
• Do children’s reading fluency, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and writing levels differ by gender, location, school and school type (co-ed, all girls, all boys), and disability, IDP status and age? If so, what does this mean for effectively targeting our learning and development program?
• How many and what percent of learners with disability attain minimum grade-level proficiency at the end of grade 1, grade 2 and grade 3?

The EGRA will support additional research questions in coordination with Save the Children Yemen, including:

• Are and to what extent are teachers adopting improved instructional practices to teach reading from teacher professional development training? What gaps and needs are present?
• Are and to what extent are schools and school principals creating a reading-supportive learning environment measured using the Safer Learning Environment (SLE) and Improving Learning Environments Together in Emergencies (ILET) tools? What gaps and needs are present?
• Do children in early grades (1 – 3) currently have access to reading materials within the school (as in school library, classroom library)?
• Do children in early grades (1 – 3) currently have access to reading materials at home or local community?
• Are and to what extent are teachers and students utilizing new textbooks and teaching manuals?
• How much time are teachers focusing on reading fluency, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and writing activities and topics in class?
• How best can Ministry of Education staff apply lessons learned from the Gateway EGRA project for future early grade reading support?

Additional tender documents can be found here: https://www.savethechildren.net/invitation-tender-yemen-ref-pradenegra2022281-early-grade-reading-assessment-egra-south-yemen

[1] See USAID Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) Toolkit: Second Edition. https://shared.rti.org/content/early-grade-reading-assessment-egra-toolkit-second-edition

[2] The EGRA work will start from October 2022 to August 2023 including the reporting process