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Date Issued: 24th April, 2017

Request for Proposal: 2017/Supply/9130567

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF) seeks to engage one or more Institutions that would be interested in engaging in research on female teachers on girls’ enrolment and retention.

Technical and Financial proposals should be forwarded to UNICEF Nigeria supply section mail box and or hard copies in sealed envelopes and should be dropped in the bid box placed in the reception room at the entrance hall of UNICEF, or be sent through courier service.

Address to: Supply Manger, UNICEF, Old CBN Building, Area 11, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria.

IMPORTANT – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

The reference RFP - 2017/Supply/9130567 must be shown on your offer.

The proposal format should align with the technical evaluation criteria when replying to this invitation. Failure to submit your bid in this format, or failure to complete the details as requested, will result in invalidation.

Offers MUST be received on or before 14:00hours Nigeria local time on 16th May, 2016 and will be publicly opened at 14:30hours Nigeria local time same day. Proposals received after the stipulated date and time will be invalidated.

Please visit our website www.unicef.org and download our supplier profile form (SPF) and fill same with necessary information to evaluate you

This request for proposal is approved by:

Michael Zanardi

Chief, Supply & Logistics Section

TERMS OF REFERENCE


RESEARCH ON INFLUENCE OF FEMALE TEACHERS ON GIRLS’ ENROLMENT AND RETENTION

(FOCUSING ON NORTHERN NIGERIA)

Period of Consultancy: Four months

Programme Area and Specific Project Involved: Education Programme; Girls Education Project Phase 3 (GEP3) being implemented in target states in northern Nigeria from 2012 to 2020.

1.  Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of the consultancy is to design and undertake research on the ‘Influence of female teachers on girls’ enrolment and retention’. UNICEF Nigeria is therefore looking for a research institution or a professional organization to support it in this exercise through an institutional contract.

The overall objective of the research is to investigate influence of female teachers on girls’ enrolment and retention in northern Nigeria, and possible correlation between these. More specifically, the study will:

·  Examine whether and in what ways the presence of female teachers enhances demand for education for girls and improves their access and retention especially in the rural primary schools in northern Nigeria, particularly in the five states (Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara) where the Girls Education Project Phase (GEP3) is being implemented;

·  Investigate factors that hamper the deployment of qualified female teachers to rural schools in northern Nigeria and the targeted states in particular;

·  Investigate if and in what ways female teachers’ presence in schools inspire girls to aspire for higher education or professional qualification;

·  Recommend more effective strategies for attracting and retaining qualified female teachers in rural schools,

2.  Scope of Work

Background

Nigeria’s National Policy on Education (2004 and 2013) which calls for a free and compulsory nine years of schooling, was an important step in increasing access to basic education in Nigeria. However, 8.7 million children[1] of primary school age (34.3% of the age group) remain out of school. Overall, 10.1 million children aged 5-14 who should be in primary or junior secondary are not in school in Nigeria[2]. The number of out-of-school children are not evenly distributed, and northern Nigeria has a higher proportion of children out of school than the rest of the country. There are many reasons for this but it is significantly driven by the north having more children of school age, by social attitudes towards ‘western’ education, and by difficulties experienced by government providing educational services in predominantly rural Local Government Authorities (LGAs).

When looking at the out of school population, children dropping out of school, while an important problem, is less of an issue than children who never entered school at all. Of primary-aged out-of-school children at the national level (6 to 11 years of age), 74% are expected to never enter school while only 5% are classified as dropouts. The rest (21%) are expected to enter school late. At the junior secondary level, the situation is much the same with 76.9% expected never to enter school while 22.1% drop out of school[3]. A higher portion (77.7%) of out of school girls are ‘never expected to enter’ school at primary level compared with boys (69.8%). Gender disparity is more prevalent in the northern regions than the rest of the country (NEDS 2010). In Sokoto State which lies in the north-western corner of Nigeria, there are twice as many boys in school than girls. In contrast, girls and boys equally access education in southern states

Within Nigeria, a clear educational divide exists between southern and northern states, with the average net attendance ratio in southern states more than twenty times higher than in northern ones (NDHS, 2013). Gender is also an important factor in the pattern of educational marginalization in Nigeria alongside geography. In northeast and northwest states of Nigeria the female primary net attendance ratio is 41.5% and 43.8% respectively which means more than 50% of girls are not in school (NDHS, 2013). On average, only 10 girls go to school for every 14 boys enrolled. In the five focus states under GEP3 the gender parity in primary education was 0.71 and 0.66 in junior secondary school.

The reasons why children and more especially girls are out of school in northern Nigeria are varied and rooted in the socio-cultural and economic environment which constructs barriers and bottlenecks to the educational success of girls and boys. Some of these barriers impact particularly on girls and their ability to enrol in school while others prevent both girls and boys from attending school regularly and becoming successful learners, ultimately resulting in them dropping out of school. Barriers such as the cost of education, negative perceptions of formal education and the low value placed on girls’ education by society influence the demand for education by parents and children and the educational choices they make.

The key findings from UNICEF supported research[4] which conducted a household survey asked heads of households in select Local Government Areas (LGAs) in five states[5] why girls and boys were out of school, provided insights into why girls were not in school and helped guide the development of education interventions. Responses identified poverty related issues (32%) and social-cultural attitudes towards girls and education (29%) as the largest barriers keeping girls out of school[6].

Digging a little deeper, the main social-cultural attitudes and practices keeping girls out of school have been identified as: early marriage, perceived incompatibility of formal (‘western’) education with Islamic values, a belief that investment in girls’ education is a poor investment, and the traditional role of women in Hausa[7] society as mothers and wives is in the home[8]. In the northern states where UNICEF’s education work focuses, the understanding on children’s, especially girls’ right to education is weak; and the environment at home and in the community neither empowers nor encourages girls to demand their right to enrol and remain in school.

The complexities and the extent of gender inequity and disparities in northern Nigeria require multiple approaches and strategies to achieve desirable change at individual, household, school and policy levels. Ultimately, it is individual parents and children who decide whether the benefits of the schooling system are worth the investment and opportunity costs. The right to education, especially for girls can only be fulfilled if parents are first convinced of the benefits that children’s, especially girls’ education, brings to the family and the community.

To address some of these factors, UNICEF Nigeria is implementing UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded Girls' Education Project Phase 3 (GEP3) which aims at contributing to improved social and economic opportunity for girls in northern Nigeria. The project targets enrolment of one million additional girls as well as improved retention and learning outcomes for girls in five states - Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara.

Female Teachers Scholarships Scheme (FTTSS)

The low priority given to girls’ education deprives girls of role models at the early stage of their education. This challenge is acute in rural areas where parents with conservative traditional/religious beliefs are reluctant to send their girls to schools having no female teachers. These factors have resulted in a significant gender imbalance in the teaching profession in most states of northern Nigeria. In the five states implementing GEP3, the proportion of female primary school teachers varies from as low as 23% to 37% compared with the national average of 47.3%. Women are underrepresented in the teaching profession because they lack the academic qualifications required for admission to the State Colleges of Education and other national teacher training programmes. The few qualified female teachers are largely concentrated in urban schools and most notably in private schools where 57% of primary school teachers are female.

In order to address this imbalance, one component of GEP3 as well as the previous phase of the project (GEP2) focused on female teachers, namely the Female Teachers Scholarships Scheme (FTTSS). The FTTSS has aimed to increase the number of female teachers in rural areas in the five GEP3 states through provision of scholarships for women to attend Colleges of Education. It has offered support to women to become teachers and achieve the Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE), the Nigerian minimum teaching qualification in primary schools. As of 2015, 7,800 young women have been awarded scholarships across the five States. Out of those, UNICEF/GEP funded 2,340 (30%) while State government funded 70% of the awardees. The last cohort of UNICEF/GEP funded students graduated in 2016 while the state governments continued to sponsor new students.

The FTTSS was envisioned over the long term period to contribute to increased retention of girls in school, based on international evidence regarding the relationship between female teachers and girls’ education. The intervention aimed to develop an effective scheme to increase the number of female teachers in rural schools in northern Nigeria by providing support to tutoring and mentoring to FTTSS recipients over a two year period. The intervention also aimed to build capacity of State Colleges of Education to provide adequate tutoring support to the FTTSS trainees to enable them to graduate, advocate with SUBEBs for deployment and employment of the FTTSS graduates to schools in their respective LGAs, and support state government (SUBEBS and LGAs) in an effort to design an alternative methods for increasing the number of female teachers in rural areas. The component has been implemented in partnership with DFID, the Federal Ministry of Education (FMoE), State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), and the State Colleges of Education (SCoEs).

The Influence of Female Teachers on Girls’ Education

Evidence shows a correlation between the number of female teachers and girls’ enrolment, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In countries where there are more or less equal numbers of male and female primary teachers, they are close to gender parity in the gross secondary enrolment ratio, with strong correlation between the proportion of female teachers at primary level and girls’ gross secondary enrolment[9]. In countries where female teachers constitute only about 20% of the teaching force, girls are underrepresented in secondary education[10]. International evidence supports the idea of the positive impact of female teachers on girls’ enrolment and retention.

In some conservative communities, parents will not allow their daughters to be taught by a male teacher. This is the case in some rural areas in Somalia and Sudan. For example, mothers often feel more comfortable talking about their children with a female teacher[11]. The placement of a female teacher, therefore, can have an immediate impact on access. Studies have shown a positive impact of female teachers on girls’ (and boys’) achievement.

A female role model can support and encourage girls to successfully complete their studies and maybe even continue studying to become teachers themselves. She is expected to listen to girls’ problems and provide guidance when necessary. In schools where girls are in the minority, the presence of one or more female teachers is expected to ensure protection for them from unwanted attention by boys or male teachers, and even from sexual abuse and exploitation[12].

At the school policy level, female teachers may act as advocates for girls, representing their perspectives and needs, and promoting a more girl-friendly learning environment. For example, female teachers may be able to advocate for better toilet and washing facilities. These are of particular importance to adolescent girls who are menstruating. In terms of menstruation, puberty, sex and reproductive health education, female teachers have an important role to play in providing girls in school with accurate information about their own bodies and how to look after themselves. A Forum for African Women Education (FAWE) Literature Review[13] suggests that raising the proportion of female teachers from 0.37 to 0.50 in the administrative posts in Mozambique increased girls enrolment rates by roughly 5 per cent points. It further noted with reference to studies from over 30 mostly developing countries, that “the presence of a female teacher mitigates the social and cultural barriers that keep girls from going to school – and that the greater those challenges, the greater the positive effects of female teachers[14]”. In places where violence, abuse and discrimination of girls in schools are prevalent, female teachers are viewed to be less likely to perpetuate gender discrimination and harassment, creating a safe space for girls to learn[15].

UNICEF Girls Education Project phase 2 (GEP II) evaluation (UNICEF 2012), which took place in Bauchi and Katsina States and an earlier evaluation of the FTTSS scheme by Garuba (2010) which took place in Niger, noted positive points about the FTTSS including:

·  communities are positive about the scheme and, in some villages, girls’ enrolment had reportedly increased just as a result of the prospect of the awardee returning from training;

·  the scheme was said to be helping to change attitudes toward girls’ education; and