The Education Project
Training Consultancy for Development of Decodable Readers (ToR)
MTB-MLE Capacity Development
1. Background information/context
The Education Project provides funding, coordination, technical assistance, and research support across different ethnic education systems to promote continuous improvement of education services and facilitate a supportive operating environment for ethnic and monastic education. The Education Project works to identify and promote sustainable solutions that address systemic barriers to education for hard-to-reach children.
In order to ensure that quality learning is available for all children in Myanmar, through its third phase strategy (2021-2025), The Education Project is committed to improving learning outcomes for all students through improving teacher professional development, creating a safe and inclusive environment, access to quality teaching-learning materials in relevant languages, and school improvement and leadership development.
The Education Project works with partners in developing their capacity to create curriculum standards and instructional materials in relevant languages and to provide professional development for teachers and contextualised education programmes for the children in their system. The areas of technical support include developing training modules, policy reviews, curriculum and assessment standards through the integration of child safeguarding, gender, disability, and social inclusion frameworks in education.
2. Objective / Purpose of the Work:
As part of developing relevant and quality learning material, decodable readers are crucial for early literacy because they provide structured reading materials that align with phonics instruction by gradually introducing new sounds and word patterns. The Education Project ethnic partners have been developing graded readers and other supplementary reading books to enrich the literacy skill but have limited decodable readers in their mother tongues that matches students’ phonics knowledge. A well decodable readers encourage decoding strategies, unlike other reading books where students might rely on pictures or memorization. During bridging from mother tongue to second language/s, they are particularly helpful for children with learning difficulties or those learning to read in a second language/s.
3. Services the Supplier will provide / Scope of Work & Deliverables
The primary objective of this consultancy is to train partners MTB-MLE technical staffs and teacher trainers on how to develop decodable readers. The consultant will guide participants through the process of creating phonics-based early literacy materials, ensuring alignment with best practices in literacy instruction. Additionally, the consultant will support staff in producing sample decodable readers as part of the training.
Deliverables
Deliverable number Title Description Timeline Output
1. Consultation meetings with The Education Project MTB-MLE team Develop training plan after consultation with MTB-MLE technical team 7th March 2025
2. Training Agenda Submission of training agenda 14th March 2025 Training agenda
3. Technical Training Delivery of Decodable Readers Development training (3 days) 27,28,29 March 2025 Training
4. Report submission 1st submission of Training Report documenting the training process, staff capacity development, and recommendations for future wor k along with training materials 6th April 2025 1st Report Training materials
5. Final submission Final submission of Training report 11th April 2025 Final report
Total days of work- 6 days (1day preparation, 3 training days, 2days for report writing)
-Estimated Commencement Date: 4th March 2025
-Estimated End Date: 25 April 2025
4. Experience and skill set required
· Master or PhD in Education, Linguistics or related, more than 10 years of experience in language and Education field
· Proven experience in developing and training others on decodable readers or early literacy materials.
· Strong understanding of phonics-based reading instruction and MTB-MLE approaches.
· Ability to design and lead technical workshops with clear objectives utilising a participatory approach to ensure understanding of the concept and application of skills taught.
· A clear understanding of curriculum standards, language progression, and age/grade appropriate teaching strategies and incorporation of GEDSI and CSG learning material development
· Ability to speak ethnic languages of Myanmar a distinct advantage.
5. Location and official travel involved
The consultant will work remotely for consultation meetings but will need to be in person to deliver the training in Mae Sariang, Thailand.
6. Payment information
Total cost payable within 45 days of satisfactory completion of deliverables.
7. Payment Conditions
· Any revenue occurring in Thailand is subject to withholding tax. If you are a Thai citizen, and or having a Thai work permit and or residing for over 180 days, then a 3% withholding tax will be applied.
· If not, a 15% withholding tax will be applied for a non-Thai citizen, residing in Thailand less than 180 days.
· If you are using an international bank account (apart from Thai and Myanmar), no withholding tax deduction will be applied, and you will be responsible for any applicable tax in your own country.
· Any transfer from USD to THB and or MMK will use the exchange rate from our system on the transfer date.
8. Application Process
· Interested and qualified individuals or firms are invited to submit a technical proposal addressing the deliverables outlined above, along with a detail budgetary proposal, including the preferred currency and cost of travel, accommodations, etc.).
· Proposals can be submitted by 17th February 2025 at 5pm. to Arunrat.wattanapalin@savethechildren.org.
Late submissions will not be considered.
· The subject of the email should be “Training Consultancy for Development of Decodable Readers” with your fully work-related reference documentations.
· For any questions, please be advised local working hours are 08:30 am – 05:00 pm. Please allow up to 3 working days for a response.
Applicants are also requested to mention in the applications if there are blood/marriage relationships with the existing employees. No requirement of photo or copy of certificates, and only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
How to apply
Interested and qualified individuals or firms are invited to submit a technical proposal addressing the deliverables outlined above, along with a detail budgetary proposal, including the preferred currency and cost of travel, accommodations, etc.).
- Proposals can be submitted by 17th February 2025 at 5pm. to the Supply Chain Department at: Arunrat.wattanapalin@savethechildren.org. Late submissions will not be considered.
- The subject of the email should be “Training Consultancy for Development of Decodable Readers” with your fully work-related reference documentations.
For any questions, please be advised local working hours are 08:30 am – 05:00 pm. Please allow up to 3 working days for a response.
Applicants are also requested to mention in the applications if there are blood/marriage relationships with the existing employees. No requirement of photo or copy of certificates, and only short-listed candidates will be contacted.