Terms of Reference (TOR) for Access Barriers to Quality Early Childhood Education in Somalia

 

TERMS OF REFERENCE

ACCESS BARRIERS TO QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN SOMALIA

1. INTRODUCTION

Save the Children International (SCI) is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in children’s lives worldwide. SCI has been operational in Somalia since 1951. Guided by the Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for 2019-2021, SCI strives to ensure most deprived children aged 0-5 years have a strong start in life; children aged 6–14 years have a better foundation for a bright future; young people aged 15-24 years become socially and economically productive citizens; girls and women have greater voice, choice and control over decisions affecting their lives, and strengthened government and civil society capacity to sustain child wellbeing in Somalia. SC Somalia implements a range of child-focused and thematically integrated programs across Somaliland, Puntland and Southern States through sustainable humanitarian and development programming which enhances both government and community improve livelihood.

Early childhood education intervention is in line with SC Somalia Country Office Strategic Plan 2019-2021, as it contributes to the realization of Goal one of the strategies which is, “To ensure Most Deprived Children (0-5years) have a Strong Start in Life”. Strong start in life means having access to quality early learning opportunities among others.

2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Somalia has been in protracted conflict, humanitarian crisis and insecurity for decades. The conflict has had pervasive impact on all systems across the country. Education notwithstanding. Access to basic quality education for Somali children has been limited over the last 3 decades with only 260,269 (142,950 boys, 117,319 girls) children attending primary school in 2018/2019 academic year (which is 30% Gross enrolment rate)¹. The low enrolment in primary school is partly attributed to the high drop-out rates among grade 1-3, associated with lack of pre-school opportunities. Early Childhood Education (ECE) almost non-existent in the country, over 90% of children in Somalia start schooling from grade one without attending pre-school. This results in a lack of foundational literacy and numeracy readiness skills which impacts the performance of children at primary school, and is one of the factors contributing to high dropout rates².

The science of early childhood development demonstrates the importance of children’s earliest experiences for long-term development and learning. Research increasingly demonstrates that the quality and the amount of early simulation and learning opportunities offered to children strongly influence their cognitive abilities as well as socio-emotional and physical development. Exposure to Early childhood Education has shown positive effects on school readiness and academic achievement, including performance on standardized tests, reduced school dropout and increased grade retention

Annual Education Statistics Year book: 2018/2019

Retention rates for lower primary school children (Grades 1-5) for federal member states and Banadir region is 66.7%. and significant benefits in terms of cognitive and socio-emotional abilities which lead children to have greater capacity to problem solve and self-regulate their behaviour and emotions.

Currently, Early Childhood Development (ECD) is a global agenda to ensure children grow to their full developmental potential. Early Childhood Education (ECE) is a critical sub sector of early childhood development. The Government of Somalia recognizes that ECE interventions are significant to the social and economic development of the country as these interventions provide children with a fairer and better start in life.

While there is overwhelming evidence on the importance of Early Childhood Education (ECE) to a child’s short and long-term development, access to early childhood learning opportunities remains extremely limited and non-existent in Somalia. Early Childhood Education (ECE) remains an under-resourced subsector.

In Somalia, there are three main channels for early learning programs; traditional Koranic school, integrated Koranic schools and formal Early childhood Education ECE facilities i.e. kindergartens and nursery schools. Majority of pre-primary aged children are excluded from formal ECE facilities because such facilities are non-existent especially in rural nomadic communities. The few existing formal ECE facilities, run by NGOs and private foundations, are in larger urban centres and focus on child care rather than holistic child development and are not affordable for the majority of the rural and crisis affected communities. Koranic schools, which are widespread in both rural and urban areas, provide religious education for children focusing on the Koranic and Islamic teaching. Parents fund and manage the Koranic schools. Integrated Koranic schools offer a broader range of subjects. While most recent data on early childhood education in the country is not available, the country’s 2018-2020 Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) (Ministry of Education, 2017) estimates only 2.2% of children between 3 to 5 years of age in Southern states attended early childhood learning programmes in 2012. Structured learning opportunities for the majority of the pre-primary age children is concentrated in Koranic schools; which offer religious teaching.

There is limited data to conduct a robust analysis on quality issues for ECE. It is widely assumed that the quality of ECE services varies greatly for a range of reasons including: lack of a standardised ECE curriculum, untrained teachers as there is no clear training policy or strategy for ECE teachers and caregivers, out-dated teaching/learning approaches, lack of learning materials, inadequate use of play and age-appropriate teaching and learning strategies as well as the strong focus on religious teaching in Koranic schools over other important competencies to support the holistic development of early year children.

Save the Children Somalia’s response

Save the children in Somalia is implementing Ready to Learn³; an evidence-driven, play-based response to the global learning crisis in which millions of children lack access early childhood education and, as a result, lack the skills they need to succeed in school and life. This approach targets children of pre-school age (3-6 years) and has three core components: learning in the early childhood centres,

Dead line is 1st November 2021

ToR_Barriers-to-Accessing-Quality-ECEs_210921_MOECHE-Reviewd

 

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