Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

The Punjab Education Reform Roadmap is a flagship programme which engages political leaders to get their buy-in for reform. Punjab is the largest province in Pakistan with 56 % of the country's population. It has the highest number of out of school children (approximately 13 000 000 6-16 year olds) and children have low learning levels. Sir Michael Barber, DFID Special Representative for Education in Pakistan, visits every 2 to 3 months (pro bono) to review progress on access, retention, completion and quality with the Chief Minister of Punjab. This ground breaking ‘Roadmap’ approach was established by Sir Michael in 2010. By compiling robust data and presenting it to the Chief Minister through traffic light heat maps, the Roadmap process has been able to address tough issues like shifting from patronage to merit based appointments, and addressing the relative performance of schools across Punjab. This has also strengthened Government monitoring systems and transparency of reporting. Ambition is high and the Chief Minister has recently set new 2018 goals for the Punjab education system. As of January 2015, these goals form the basis of a new Roadmap and focus on high quality teaching and learning; strong leadership and accountability; a conducive learning environment; and high quality school infrastructure. If the Roadmap is successful in assisting the Punjab government meet its 2018 goals, a more sustainable education system will be in place by 2018/19 and the Roadmap will become an internal Government process. The technical assistance team is integral to the success of the Roadmap and will need to: form a close political relationship and work politically with the Government of Punjab at the highest level; be able to work with the Special Representative; have experience of policy, planning and implementation of large scale education reform; possess technical ability in the areas of data collection, analysis and presentation; be able to be responsive, flexible and work at pace; have proven capacity to analyse, problem solve and overcome barriers to change; and understand the wider context in which the Roadmap operates in Punjab (including the Punjab Education Support Programme II (PESP II)). The Roadmap boosts results derived from DFID's financial support and other technical assistance under PESP II (total value 420 500 000 GBP from FY 2013 to 2019; DFID's largest education programme globally) which provides broader implementation support on priorities identified in the PESP II business case.