World Bank seeking EoI for a consultant with international expertise in quality assurance and institutional capacity building of teacher education institutions.

The World Bank is currently seeking a consultant with international experience in higher education quality assurance and institutional capacity development, particularly with regards to teacher education institutions. The consultant would support a World Bank financed program in Vietnam entitled the Enhancing Teacher Education Program (ETEP). ETEP is part of the Government of Vietnam’s Fundamental and Comprehensive Education Reform. The objective of ETEP is to strengthen teacher education institutions to enhance teacher and principal effectiveness through improved continuous professional development. The principal strategy to meet this objective is to ensure that all 1-12 grade teachers receive school-based continuous professional development (CPD). By “bringing training to the teacher”, school-based CPD can help teachers more effectively master these new methods and acquire these new competencies. Selected teacher education universities would provide technical support and guidance. Consequently, these universities will require institutional changes and reinforcement so that they can take on these responsibilities.

If you or someone you recommend is available and interested in such a consultancy, we would greatly appreciate receiving an Expression of Interest (EOI). The attached Terms of Reference provide more background and describe expected results of this consultancy, as well as instructions for transmitting the EOI.

With ETEP support, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), which is the implementing agency of the government’s education reform program, aims to reinforce CPD through two main vehicles: (i) assigning Core Teachers and Principal Advisors to schools and school clusters to provide face-to-face training and support and (ii) establishing an online platform that can provide needs-based, interactive training and support directly to teachers and principals. A rigorous training needs assessment system, based on professional standards and context-specific needs defined by teachers and principals, will inform the development of tailored training programs and applications. To ensure the dynamism and quality of the enhanced CPD system, eight Lead Teacher Training Universities in respective catchment areas (corresponding approximately to regions) will train and provide support to the Core Teachers and Principal Advisors who will be assigned to schools; develop the online services and applications; and help develop the needs assessment systems. The LTTUs are expected to provide technical leadership and guidance for this school-based CPD system.

As a way to guide the necessary changes within the LTTUs, the government intends to develop a set of instruments to benchmark institutional capacity of LTTUs to perform their new functions, set targets, and measure progress. These instruments will be consolidated into a Teacher Education Institution Development Index (TEIDI) that can allow for comparison and guide institutional capacity building programs. Each LTTU will also prepare a Performance Agreement (PA), which is a contract signed between a LTTU and MOET. In the PA, the university commits to particular results in order to receive resources necessary to enhance their capacity. The Consultant will develop the TEIDI and the Program Agreement formats, as well as define the process by which these tools will be applied and used by the MOET and the LTTUs.

Terms of Reference are attached and ETEP’s Program Appraisal Document, can be retrieved from this link.