ПРОДОВЖЕНО: Тендер на закупівлю послуг з підготовки навчальних онлайн-матеріалів

Terms of Reference for

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: PREPARATION OF THE ONLINE LEARNING MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS OF THE 5^TH- 6^TH GRADES IN THE FIELDS OF “SOCIAL AND HEALTH PROTECTION”

Ref. “Learning Together” Outcome 1 / Output activity 1.1. / 1.1.5. Preparation of digital NUS materials / Budget line C1.02.02

The project Finland’s Support to the Ukrainian School Reform, known as “Learning Together”, seeks to enter into a contract with a qualified and experienced service provider, a private company or other legal entity, to design and prepare the learning material package on “Social and Health Protection” for students of 5th-6th  grades, who started in September 2022 to study according to the new educational standards for basic secondary education.

This Terms of Reference consists (i) Assignment for which technical services are called for, and (ii) Instructions for tenderers, interested service providers, for submitting proposals.

Background

The project Finland’s Support to the Ukrainian School Reform (“Learning Together”) is a multi-year development co-operation project (2018-2023), which is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the EU. The Project is implemented by FCG Finnish Consulting Group Ltd (former FCG International). The project is supporting the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform in the sphere of primary and general secondary education.  The project contributes to three interlinked result areas: Improving teaching and administration in schools (Cluster 1);  education promotion (Cluster 2); and improving learning environments (Cluster 3). Inclusive Education for All is a crosscutting approach.

In September 2020, the Ukrainian government approved the new educational standards for basic secondary school (5^th-9^th grades) as a part of educational reform “The New Ukrainian School”. The project “Learning Together” provided support to the development of the standards together with other international donors such as the European Wergeland Centre (EWC), “The New Ukrainian School: 2” project (Poland), and other. The standards include the description of the competencies and the requirements to the learning results of education in nine educational domains: Language and Literature, Mathematics, Science, Technologies, ICT, Health, Safety and Wellbeing, Civic Education and History, Arts, and Physical Education.

As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “The All-Ukrainian School Online” platform was launched by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine jointly with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of Education Development. Many international organizations and business companies have provided support to the development of the platform and its contents. The All-Ukrainian School Online – E-SCHOOL.net.ua – is the online resource for blending and distance learning of the students of the 5^th-11^th grades. The  learning materials (educational courses), which have been uploaded on the e-platform, correspond to the new educational standards and have passed relevant expertise. In general, there was a plan to produce 3500 lessons to cover the curriculum of the 5^th-11^th grades.

Starting from 24^th February 2022, the date of the Russian military invasion to Ukraine,  distance learning has become more and more critical for Ukrainian students and teachers, both in the country and abroad.

As of August 1, 2022, “The All-Ukrainian School Online” platform offers 2,199 lessons (73 educational courses) out of the 3,500 originally planned. Due to the war situation and unexceptional conditions, the Government of Ukraine is not capable to provide all necessary funds for further content creation. Therefore, external assistance is crucial to ensure the online delivery of quality educational materials for students and teachers. All new educational materials to be uploaded on the platform should pass relevant expertise. At the moment, the modernization of the existing educational courses for the 5^th-6^th grades as well as the development of the remaining new online courses are priority needs.

UNICEF is one of the biggest supporters of the online platform together with other international organizations and projects such as the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), the Swiss-Ukrainian project DECIDE and others. During 2021-2022, UNICEF provided support to make educational materials inclusive as well as for the expertise of the educational materials. In 2022, UNICEF is continuing its support for the modernization of 400 lessons and for the development of the new 360 lessons for the students of 5th-6th  grades.

However, there are still several remaining educational domains, which do not yet receive sufficient support for development. Among them are “Social and Health Protection” and “Language and Literature (in particular Literature), and others.

Conclusion: The project “Learning Together” is committed to support the development and preparation of the online learning materials for students of 5th-6th  grades in the educational domain “Social and Health Protection”. The new online materials to be developed will be an essential resource for the teachers who will develop relevant scenarios of their courses. This activity will be a joint activity of the “Learning Together” Cluster 1 and Cluster 3.

 It is necessary to mention that the project “Learning Together” has already in 2021 provided support in conducting consultation webinars for potential authors of the model educational programs according to the framework educational program (typova osvitnya programa) for the first level (adaptation cycle) of the basic secondary education (5^th-6^th grades).

The development of the online educational materials for students of the 5^th- 6^th grades should (i) be based on the new educational standards for the basic secondary education; and (ii) be implemented in close partnership with the Ukrainian Institute of Education Development (UIED), which is the administrator of “The All-Ukrainian School Online” platform and organizes the expertise of educational materials before they are uploaded on the platform. Contact person: Iryna Krut, the Head of the Department of Basic and Higher Secondary Education, [email protected].

Purpose and scope of the work

The purpose of the work to be supported by the project “Learning Together” is to provide access to quality educational materials for students of the 5th-6th  grades (first adaptation) cycle of the basic secondary education) through:

• Development of online educational materials according to the educational domain of “Social and Health Protection” based on the new educational standards for basic secondary education; and 

• Strengthening capacities of teachers for the development and using of educational materials, in particular online materials, in the educational domain of “Social and Health Protection”.

The online course “Social and Health protection” aims to develop students’ ability to self-awareness, harmonious social and interpersonal interaction, preservation of their own health and the health of others, the ability to take care of safety, and show entrepreneurship to ensure their own and public wellbeing.

The educational domain “Social and Health Protection” is part of the framework educational program, in particular by the integrated course “Health, safety and wellbeing”, which includes the following thematic blocks: human well-being and health, personal and social safety, entrepreneurship, society well-being, personal development and learning skills, health and lifestyle. This educational domain is reflected in the framework educational plan – one hour per week (in total 35 weeks per school year).

There is a need to develop a 70-hour online course on “Social and Health Protection” for students of the 5th-6th grades in general.

UNICEF will provide necessary co-funding for the expertise of the developed online course based on needs.

The Service Provider will be identified through the open Call for Proposals. The Service Provider will cooperate with the designated staff of the project “Learning Together”. A detailed work schedule will be finalized by the Service Provider under supervision of the “Learning Together” National Project Director (NPD) and Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), in consultation with the “Learning Together” advisory team.

The details of the assignment, terms and conditions will be finalized in the service contract between FCG Finnish Consulting Group (Contractor, former FCG International) and the first ranked Service Provider.

Duration of the work

The estimated duration of the assignment will be at maximum 6 months (preparation, conducting and reporting) starting from the commencement date of the work. The work is expected to start before the end of November 2022. 

Methodology and work plan

Modern learner-centered pedagogical approach and good practices of distance learning should be applied in the design and preparation of the online learning materials.

The Service Provider’s tentative work plan should include at least the following Stages 1.-6. activities with a personnel plan (key human resources):

Stage 1. Preparation 

The contracted Service Provider in partnership with the project “Learning Together” and UIED will:

1. create Working Groups, which will include teachers, methodologists, editors and designers; requirements in Annex 1 (note: the Project manager’s and other production team key experts’ requirements in the TOR section “Evaluation criteria and procedure”)
2. provide locations for production video-lessons; create working groups for production and post-production: Cinematographer / editor; Designer; Motion designer; Technical staff (form courses on the platform);
3. will provide the studio rental, rental of lighting equipment, rental of additional filming equipment, and transportation.

Dates to be defined.

Stage 2. Developing educational materials

The contracted Service Provider in partnership with the project “Learning Together” and UIED will:

1. develop a Study Program (calendarno-tematychnyy plan) reflecting respective State Standard’s demands to obligatory learning outcomes and description of the course: information about the course, the process of its studying, information about the course`s authors;
2. develop scenarios of online lessons: developing different kinds of learning activities (a content, description of design, recommendations to lessons` placing on the platform);
3. write scenarios of the online lessons;
4. develop formative assessment tools for the lessons;
5. develop summative assessment tools for the theme;
6. develop summative assessment tools for the course;
7. conduct a methodological review of the scenarios of the lessons;
8. editing scenarios of the lessons (editing texts, tasks, prompters).

Dates to be defined. 

Stage 3. Production of online lessons

The contracted Service Provider (s) in partnership with the project and UIED will:

1. develop the tasks according to the lessons` scenarios (development of graphic elements of the lessons; technical texts` formatting; placing the lessons` components on the platform);
2. conduct the video production (shooting a video; video editing; sound cleaning and adding sound effects; light correction; creating slides and graph elements for the video; post production; entering editions in the video; adding the video to YouTube);
3. place the tasks for formative assessment to the lessons; placing the summary assessment to the themes and to the courses.

Dates to be defined

Stage 4. Providing expertise

The expertise will be organized by UIED and supported financially by UNICEF. The expertise is provided by independent experts. The list of experts (expert organization) is determined by UNICEF from the list recommended by the Expert Board.

The expertise is conducted in two stages:

1) expertise of scenarios of the lessons and additional learning materials;

2) expertise of the final educational materials placed on the platform.

After positive feedback of the Expert Board of the Ukrainian Institute of Education Development (order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine #1067 as of 04.10.2021), the final online materials are placed on the platform.

There is the preliminary agreement of UNICEF to provide financial support to cover expertise.

Dates to be defined.

Stage 5. Providing methodological support on using online educational materials

The Service Provider, in consultation with UIED and “Learning Together”, will develop  and deliver the series of 10 x 2-hour webinars, based on needs, to provide support to online course developers and teachers of the 5th-6th grades of the educational domain “Social and Health Protection”.

The webinar programme should cover the following needs of course developers and teachers: a) development of electronic educational materials based on the model studying programmes; b) ways of presenting various types of educational activities through electronic tools; c) All-Ukrainian School online distance learning web platform (what types of tasks the platform supports); d) teaching methods (methods and methods of implementing various contents of curricula).

The 10 x 2-hour webinars will be delivered by Ukrainian experts, the list of whom will be recommended by UIED. The Service Provider will (i) contract Ukrainian  webinar  experts who will develop and deliver the webinars (2022 – early 2023), and (ii) provide the Zoom platform with technical support. The estimated total expenses of the 10 webinars is presented in the Price Proposal.

Note: In addition to the 10 webinars by Ukrainian experts, the project “Learning Together” will separately deliver 4 x 2-hour webinars by Finnish experts for the same target group. The purpose is to share Finnish experience of teaching the educational domain Social and Health Protection. The 4 webinars by Finnish experts will take place in December 2022. The webinar schedules will be coordinated with the Service Provider.

Stage 6. Reporting

The Service Provider will submit to the project “Learning Together” the following progress reporting:

• Inception Report – submission in 3 weeks after the commencement of the assignment for discussion and approval with UIED and “Learning Together”.
• One page monthly progress reports to summarize the achievements, significant deviations if any, and the following month’s action plan
• Final report – At the completion of the assignment, the developed online course product with a Final Report are submitted for approval. The Final Report must include an evaluation of the assignment ex post facto and the final financial report. The used material will be annexed to the report.

Main deliverables

1. Updated workplan and budget with a personnel plan (Annex of the signed service contract; approval prior the advance payment Lot 1)
2. Inception report with a brief status review and needs assessment and proposed revisions in the workplan, if any (submission in 3 weeks after the commencement of the work).
3. Key deliverables (to be finalized in the service contract), which describe the structure of the online learning product, study materials to be prepared, organization of the work and human resources, a mid-term progress report, an updated workplan and budget for the remaining period of the assignment (to be jointly discussed and finalized during the inception period; approval prior the payment Lot 2)
4. The online course product and the final report including the final financial reporting (approval prior the final payment Lot 3)

English is the reporting language excluding the final key deliverable, the online  course with study materials, which will be provided in Ukrainian language only. 

Service Provider

The Service Provider will be in charge of (i) the design, resourcing and preparation of the  online course product; (ii) the management, team leadership and reporting of the assignment; and (iii) collaboration and coordination with the stakeholders during the assignment.

The Service Provider may be a private company or other relevant legal entity.

The Service Provider should have relevant verified human and technical capability with successful track records of similar assignments.

The Service Provider will identify and propose a Project Manager and other Key Expert Team members (not exclusive) to deliver the assignment.

The detailed requirements for a Service Provider and Expert Team are described below under “Requirements for submitting proposals: Evaluation criteria”.

Contracting and reporting

Contracting parties: FCG Finnish Consulting Group (Contractor) representing the project “Learning Together” and the Service Provider (Consultant), which will be selected through an open call for proposals.

Due to exceptional circumstances since 24th February 2022, following the decision of the donors, the MFA Finland and the EU (represented by the European Delegation in Kyiv, Ukraine) in spring 2022, the “Learning Together” Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) and National Project Director (NPD) review and approve TORs and make decisions – in consultation with the donors and the MoES Ukraine as needed.

Reporting: The Service Provider will work under the supervision of and report to the “Learning Together” Chief Technical Advisor. The deliverables and progress reporting will be approved by the “Learning Together” CTA and NPD with support of the Advisory Team consisting of “Learning Together” local experts from Cluster 1 and Cluster 3. In addition, the Advisory Team will guide and assist the Service Provider’s actual work.

An option for the extended procurement of similar type of services will be included in the service contract, but it does not oblige the Contractor.  Additional service needs  should be within the “Learning Together” overall plan and concern the preparation of online training/educational materials for teacher professional development or for students. The realization of extended procurement would be conditional, based on prior approval by the “Learning Together” CTA and NPD and an amendment to this main service contract’. The price of services should remain on the same fee rate level. The donors and the MoES will also be consulted as appropriate. 

Budget and the terms of payments

The estimated maximum budget for the assignment is EUR 57,000.00. The “Learning Together” budget line is: C1.02.02. A proposed price of the services may exceed the estimated maximum provided that written justifications are included in the price proposal. The price proposal of the first ranked and selected service provider will be reviewed and, if needed, revised in mutual understanding during the contract negotiations (Clarification added 25.11.2022).

The payment milestones and the payment terms and conditions will be finalized during the contract negotiations between FCG Finnish Consulting Group Ltd (Contractor), represented by the “Learning Together” CTA, and the Service Provider (Consultant).

The payments will be made in phases, against the Service Provider’s invoices with supporting documents. The tentative payment milestones follow:

Guiding principles

The Manual for Bilateral Programmes by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, revised version 2018 https://um.fi/publications/-/asset_publisher/TVOLgBmLyZvu/content/manual-for-bilateral-programmes is applied in the planning and implementation of this assignment. This manual is applied in all cooperation that has been agreed between Finland and Ukraine.

Mandate

The Service Provider is expected and entitled to discuss issues relevant to the assignment with relevant parties, government authorities and other relevant organizations and individuals, but the team does not have any mandate to make commitments on behalf of the government authorities in Ukraine and Finland or on behalf of the Contractor FCG Finnish Consulting Group especially. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO TENDERERS

Schedule and procedure for submitting a Proposal

Please note that all communications during the tendering period should be in writing and in English. Further instructions concerning the tender will be provided only through the email address [email protected]

Requirements for submitting a Proposal

The written Proposal should be in English and include the following documentation as separate pdf-files:

• Cover Letter to confirm the organization (legal entity), who submits the proposal, including the full name of the entity, address, and the contact person with e-mail address. In case of a consortium, the partner entities are presented with the same details.
• Technical Proposal – narrative part of no more than eight (8) pages + Annexes. Contents: Strengths of the organization (capability statement incl. relevant reference projects), Comments on the terms of reference (our understanding of the Assignment), Proposed approach and methodology, Work schedule, Team composition with main tasks. Management and quality assurance.
• Price Proposal (UAH/EUR): The cost breakdown should include two (2) separate sections: “Expert fees” and “Other expenses”. Fees of the proposed experts should be presented with “unit item” (working-day or working-month), “unit price” (daily or monthly fee in UAH/EUR), “number of units” (working-days or working-months) and “total fee in UAH/EUR”. Other expenses should be broken down according to the Proposal and methodology.
• CVs of the proposed experts: Project Manager and other team members.
• Official documents confirming the status of the organization and a document confirming the financial capabilities (annual statement of cash flows and statement of financial results) of the organization.
• Copies of registration documents (including copies of certificates of registration of legal entities that the participant plans to attract for the provision of services (consortium), a copy of the tax certificate; an extract from the Charter indicating the activity).

The template forms for a Technical Proposal and a Price Proposal are in Annex 2.

Other relevant supporting materials may be provided as Annexes. 

The eligible proposals received will be valid for 3 months from the submission date.

Evaluation criteria and procedure 

The eligible proposals, which have been received in a timely manner, will be evaluated based on Quality (90%) and Price (10%); max. 90 + 10 = 100 points. 

The Quality of the proposals will be evaluated based on the following:

• Technical proposal
• Relevance and efficiency of the proposed approach, methodology and work schedule
• Creative elements of the proposed online course concept
• Comments on the Terms of Reference (understanding of the assignment)
• Service Provider’s Organization – capability to perform the assignment successfully will be evaluated based on:
  • previous experience in similar assignments; at least one reference assignment of successful self-study online course preparation in connection with the education sector (with the name and contact detail of the client’s reference person)
  • availability of human and technical resources and tools for the assignment; proposed solution for sustainable delivery and maintenance of the target online course
  • previous experience in design and conducting of needs assessments
  • previous experience of working in international projects

• Service Provider’s Expert Team qualifications (based on the CVs)
  • The Project Manager should have proven professional experience in the leadership and coordination of successful online course production/s; experience in project management and reporting.
  • All the expert team members should have complementary knowledge, skills and experience in a teacher’s work and school pedagogy, adult training, (self-study) online course design and technical preparation, specific content of the target online course; excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills in Ukrainian and English (English skills mandatory for the Project Manager, an asset for others). At least a bachelor’s degree in relevant fields is preferred for the Project Manager and pedagogical key experts. Knowledge of the New Ukrainian School reform is an asset.

As result of the evaluation procedure, the best ranked tenderer will be invited to contract negotiations.

The proposed methodology and work schedule may be subject for modifications as result of the contract negotiations.

The Contractor FCG/”Learning Together” is not bound to accept any of the proposals received.

ANNEXES

Annex 1. Qualification requirements for members of the Working Groups – Annex 1

Annex 2. Template forms for submission of a Proposal – Annex 2