[Tlc] C-position

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin


This notice was sent to the graduate school of education

 

The United States Agency for International Development in Cambodia (USAID/Cambodia) is seeking applications from qualified applicants to implement a program to provide support to increase relevance, quality, and access in Basic Education.  USAID anticipates awarding a 5-year cooperative agreement (CA) as a result of this RFA. Subject to annual availability of funds, USAID intends to award a cooperative agreement for approximately $10,000,000 up to a five-year period (o/a September 2009 – August 2014. It is anticipated that approximately $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 will be provided for each of the first two years of the agreement. USAID reserves the right to fund any or none of the applications submitted.

 

Applicants are requested to develop innovative approaches to produce the following results:

 

    * Increased access to Basic Education (in supported schools);
    * Improved quality of Basic Education (in supported schools); and
    * Increased capacity of local civil society, including Education NGOs, and government.

 

Attainment of these intermediate results contributes to USAID/Cambodia’s goal of better educated youth in Cambodia.  Implementation activities will be conducted primarily at the community and provincial levels with buy-in and approval from the national level.  The innovative approaches developed by the applicants will be supported by a robust Performance Management Plan including results-oriented indicators which measure program performance and impact.

 

Cambodia’s education system continues to be affected by a weak public-sector service-delivery system, nominal teacher capacity, lack of adequate school facilities, poor governance, and a lack of quality teaching and learning resources.  These factors result in low enrollment levels and high drop-out rates, especially at the lower secondary level and higher.  Repetition and absenteeism are also major concerns and vulnerable children, particularly girls, the disabled, and minorities, are at risk of being deprived of an education.  Lower secondary enrollment rates are near 35%, which puts Cambodia globally in the bottom 20 countries worldwide.

 

In community meetings, parents and community members often identify the lack of a relevant curriculum as an obstacle to lower secondary school enrollment.  Additionally, limited access, such as distance to and from school, lack of classrooms, and school-associated costs, as well as the lack of qualified teachers are factors that affect enrollment and retention.  Due in large part to inadequate access to a quality and relevant basic education, at best 25 percent of the 250,000 individuals who are eligible to enter the job market each year have the necessary and sufficient skills to find employment in the formal sector.  Furthermore, workers with little formal basic education experience are more likely to suffer from low pay and benefits, poor working conditions, and job insecurity.

 

Therefore, USAID/Cambodia’s new education project will focus on designing, developing, pilot testing, and evaluating a more relevant lower secondary school life skills curriculum, using lessons learned from previous USAID education projects.  Teachers will be trained in the use of the new curriculum and school administrators and management committees will be trained in such areas as planning, how to develop small grant applications, school management, and facilities maintenance.  Access issues will also be addressed by providing scholarships to vulnerable students and making available school improvement grants.  Additionally, at the end of the project, one or more local Education NGOs will be capable of providing quality assistance in primary and lower secondary education, creating in-country sustainability and building the capacity of local civil society.

 

The development hypothesis is that a more relevant curriculum, combined with better trained teachers and school managers will encourage more students to attend lower secondary school and to stay long enough to complete the lower secondary cycle (i.e. complete grade 9).  Improved physical facilities (wells for drinking water, sanitary latrines, life skills laboratories, etc.) will also play a positive role in inducing students to attend and remain in school.  In addition, a limited number of scholarships will directly help vulnerable youth obtain a quality education.  In total, these improvements will create a better educated youth population who will have a knowledge base more relevant to the economic needs of Cambodia, with skills more compatible with the demands of the local job market.

 

Results Framework[1]

USAID’s ultimate goal in the education sector is “a better educated youth population” and the objective of this new project is “increased relevance, quality, and access in education.”  The proposed activities address access, quality, and governance issues and will enable Cambodia to implement a lower secondary life skills curriculum that responds to the key constraints and weaknesses of lower secondary school:  relevancy and quality.  Curriculum development along with teacher training, school management committee training, design and implementation of school improvement activities (including wells and latrines), and scholarships will come together as an integrated project that will be piloted in urban, rural, and remote areas.  The impact of the project will be increased lower secondary school enrollments, retention, and completion rates, providing Cambodia’s adolescent youth population with an opportunity to be better educated and lead productive lives.

 

Provided below is USAID/Cambodia’s Results Framework (RF) for its education strategy including Strategic Objective (SO) and Intermediate Results (IR).  Also, a full graphical representation of the USAID/Cambodia Education RF is contained in Section F (Attachment 2 – Education Results Framework).  The RF in the Annex documents the type of indicators that the Applicant should take into account in program design.  Illustrative activities and possible standard and custom indicators under each IR are provided below in the Activity Components Section.

 

The activities and indicators outlined in the Results Framework at the IR level are illustrative.  Applicants are encouraged to propose additional or alternative indicators as long as these can be demonstrated to lead directly to the achievement of the SO and IR level results indicated in the Results Framework.  Applicants may also propose appropriate indicators and benchmarks in the development of their Performance Management Plan (PMP).  The magnitude of results proposed and the likelihood of their being achieved within the implementation time frame will be considered in the evaluation.

 

The purpose of this RFA is to implement a set of activities that will help to reach the goal of better educated youth in Cambodia by addressing two sub-objectives and one cross-cutting objective:  increased access to Basic Education, improved quality of Basic Education, and increased capacity of local civil society, including Education NGOs, and government.  These sub-objectives and the cross-cutting objective are tied to three main challenges facing Cambodia’s lower secondary education sector.  As part of the proposal, Applicants are encouraged to verify their development assumptions upon which proposed programs and activities are to be based, making clear links between problems and solutions.  Applicants should also include milestones and targets in order to measure progress in implementing the proposed solutions

 

For full solicitation please see http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=D6JWKDrcCcvNF6BtvHLL7Hcnvprt2V46PB1HmWGrDCQm2J1n2HW8!-1618952969?oppId=48068&flag2006=false&mode=VIEW and click on full announcement.  Due date is July 10

 

Jane Schultz, Ph.D.
Director of Research Development
Office of Research , University of California-Riverside
200 University Office Building Riverside, CA 92521
tel. 951-827-7986 
fax. 951-827-4483

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu