Curriculum Mapping Expert

OPM TA Team Short term technical assistance ToR

Title: Curriculum Mapping expert

Working with

President of CERD, the Joint Academic Departments, Curriculum Design Expert (CDE)  

Reports to

President of CERD,TA Project Director

Contribution to Output:

CERD Component

Scope and description of the Task

In recent years, Lebanon has become the country with the highest refugee per capita in the world. Officially, there are more than 1.5 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a third of which are school going aged children. In 2013, the Government of Lebanon (GoL) opened a second-shift in its public education system to cater for the enormous numbers of refugee students. In 2017/2018, non-Lebanese students outnumbered Lebanese students in the public education system. The responsibility for educating all these students resides with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) who, alongside external donors, launched the Reaching All Children with Education II (RACE II) programme in 2016.

The World Bank (WB) and GoL, especially the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and the Centre for Education Research and Development (CERD), designed Support to RACE II (S2R2) to deliver on significant parts of RACE II as the strategy relates to the formal education sector. S2R2 is designed to complement other work developed to support RACE II, such as activities planned and implemented with UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO.

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Lebanon’s contribution to the education sector includes support to S2R2 as well as the provision of a technical assistance team to MEHE and a separate team to CERD. In March 2018, a three-year technical assistance project was awarded to Oxford Policy Management, which expanded an existing TA facility to serve MEHE and CERD priority areas to achieve the objectives of RACE II. The TA team supports the GoL to deliver the immediate objectives of the S2R2 programme while building the capacity, systems and processes which underpin a medium-term sector development strategy.

Level of effort

1. Objectives and deliverables

BACKGROUND:

Lebanon’s curriculum was last completely revised in 1971, with multiple partial revisions including recently in 1997, 2000 and 2012. The current Lebanese formal curriculum dates from 1997 and has not seen major changes since that date. It is strongly centered on specific concepts or information that students should know, rather than on competencies and skills that learners should acquire. MEHE and CERD are committed to revise the curriculum under RACE 2 so that it is competency-based, learner-centered, and relevant for the 21st century needs of the workforce. CERD will lead the development of a new national curriculum, which will include learning objectives for each grade.

The first part of the expert’s role is to provide technical expertise for CERD to advance the development of a new national curriculum.

The second part of the expert’s role is contributing to mapping the national curriculum to the digital resources hosted by DLP. As per HE Minister Majzoub’s request, MEHE and CERD has  launched a programme of national distance learning for public schools. This is in direct response to the coronavirus outbreak in Lebanon which enforced the temporary closure of all schools across the country in the last Academic Year 2019/20 and may do similarly in AY20/21.

As a result, the Digital Learning Platform (DLP) was created for all grades (KG to grade 12) following the Lebanese curriculum and linked to international libraries and resources in three languages:  Arabic, English and French.  This platform allows students and teachers to participate in interactive virtual learning environments in both a synchronous and asynchronous manner.

HUMAN RESOURCES REQUIRED AND RATIONALE:

For the first task, Lebanon is also embarking on an ambitious programme to develop a new curriculum to meet the demands of the 21^st century. CERD are the central player and will lead on this development. The Curriculum Mapping Expert should support the Curriculum Design Expert to make sure that the initial stages of curriculum consultation and planning are executed without delay.

For the second task, The expert is responsible for providing technical expertise to assist CERD’s Joint Academic Departments and Curriculum Design Expert (CDE) in mapping/prioritising existing online content to the Lebanese curriculum. Plus reviewing materials for the first time before integration onto the DLP. The expert will support projects internally and is responsible for tasks and assignments associated with the development of training.

WORKING RELATIONSHIP AND STATION:

The consultant team will work from CERD and report to OPMTA Project Director . The consultant will be contracted for 6 months.

The specific tasks under this role include:

The role holder shall support and/or work in close collaboration with all the assigned teams, as directed by CERD President.

Mapping of online resources

• Evaluate the quality of national, regional and international online resources
• Where resources are found to be useful, map these resources to the Lebanese curriculum stating the appropriate Grade, subject, chapter and topic
• Identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of e-content mapping to curricula
• Outline the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) which should be reached after completion of each resource and map/identify gaps between these consolidated SLOs and the Lebanese curriculum

Preparation for the new curriculum

• As appropriate and requested by CERD President, support CERD and Curriculum Design Expert (CDE) on the initial processes to get the curriculum processes underway. Including but not limited to support on planning, consultation (including formation of necessary committees, and other curriculum operationalisation). This should be particularly in close coordination with the Curriculum Design Expert (CDE) and focused on the WB Disbursement Linked Indicator #7 which is related to curriculum development.

The consultant should also pay due attention to upcoming development of the non-formal education curriculum as well.

Performs other related duties as assigned for the purpose of ensuring the efficient and effective functioning of the project, as requested by CERD President.

DELIVERABLES AND TIME FRAME:

Deliverable

Number of Days

Preparation for the new curriculum

Total: 30 days

Provide Technical support to drafting the curriculum development workplan including advising on the activities, schedule, and budget needed based on the work that has been done previously.

10 days

Provide support to CERD in designing, conducting and reporting consultations and discussions of the detailed work plan with all relevant stakeholders.

20 days

Mapping of online resources

Total: 32 days

Review the existing national, regional and international online resources and provide a report on the quality of the online resources.

5 days

Map the online resources to the Lebanese curriculum stating the appropriate Grade, subject, chapter and topic… and other necessary criteria.

20

Outline the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) which should be reached after completion of each resource and map/identify gaps between these consolidated SLOs and the Lebanese curriculum

5 days

Identify the lessons learned and develop  a report on the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of e-content mapping to curricula

2 days

Total Days

62 days

1. PROFILE AND SKILLS

• Masters’ or further university degree in Education, Curriculum, or other related field. PhD in relevant subject matter is a plus
• Minimum of 15 years’ experience working on complex national curriculum reforms.
• Significant international experience and expertise with curriculum planning, consultation and development
• Understanding of the Lebanese curriculum (or similar contexts) and its taxonomy: grade, subject, chapter, topic in order to map online resources to appropriate parts of the Lebanese curriculum
• Demonstrable experience in leading on initiatives in e-learning and on hosting of online resources on digital platforms
• Demonstratable experience in digital interactive content design, structure, standards and formats.
• Experience working in complex environments and on national curriculum matters
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills
• Fluency in English is required
• Arabic or French is desirable

1. APPROACH AND SKILLS TRANSFER PLAN

1. WORKING RELATIONSHIP: The Consultant will work in close coordination with the CERD President and build on work that they have already started.
2. STATION: All the necessary introductions to CERD staff, access to CERD will be granted by the President of CERD.