Immersion in Life Skills: Gains and Learnings

from the RtR Perspective

Scope of Work

For Hiring an External Research Agency

Organizational Overview

Founded in 2000 with the core belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read (RtR) is creating a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality through education. We are achieving this goal by helping children in historically low-income communities develop literacy skills and a habit of reading, and by supporting girls as they build life skills to succeed in school and negotiate key life decisions. Through a holistic and innovative approach, Room to Read focuses on effecting profound, systemic change within schools in low-income countries during two pivotal stages of a child's academic journey: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls' education. We collaborate with governments and other partner organizations to deliver positive outcomes for children at a scale, to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary schools with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions. Room to Read has benefited more than 39 million children and has worked in 23 countries and in more than 182,000 communities, providing additional support through remote solutions that facilitate learning beyond the classroom. Room to Read aims to benefit 40 million children by 2025.

Room to Read India Trust, established in 2003, operates programs in twelve states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. We aim to make educational opportunities and resources more available to disadvantaged children in our mission to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy one child at a time.

Program Overview

Room to Read envisions a world where every child has the opportunity to access quality education, empowering them to become agents of positive change within their communities. At the heart of this vision lies the Girl’s Education Program (GEP), through which Room to Read engages with school-going adolescent girls from economically disadvantaged communities and vulnerable backgrounds to provide them with essential life skills. We strive for a gender responsive approach in our work—in both design and delivery—that seeks to actively challenge harmful gender norms and address power disparities that contribute to gender inequality.

The GEP is dedicated to empowering adolescent girls by enabling them to develop essential life skills. In the framework of the Life Skills Education Program, Room to Read empowers girls with tools to advocate for themselves, think critically, empathize, and make informed decisions. By prioritizing the development of these skills, Room to Read aims to empower girls to independently tackle challenges and emerge as self-reliant individuals capable of making positive contributions to both their own lives and their communities.

Rooted in a strong commitment to foster gender equality, it equips girls with crucial life skills essential for navigating critical life decisions. By prioritizing the completion of secondary school and empowering girls with the ability to advocate for themselves, Room to Read's GEP serves as a catalyst for both social change and individual transformation within communities facing adversity.

The GEP represents a holistic approach to supporting girls on their educational journey by creating an empowering environment tailored to their needs. The program not only unlocks individual potential but also fosters broader societal progress. Recognizing that investing in girls' education yields transformative outcomes, the GEP embodies a commitment to shaping a brighter future for generations to come.

We firmly believe that equipping girls with essential life skills enhances their ability to navigate crucial life decisions, challenge prevailing stereotypes and assertively take charge of their lives. These competencies empower girls to effectively respond to diverse challenges and discern optimal pathways to success, thereby fostering the development of agency. Through our life skills training initiatives, adolescent girls develop the resilience and confidence needed to establish short, medium, and long-term goals, make well-informed decisions, and exercise sound judgment.

Our approach involves collaborative partnerships with adolescent girls, their families, educational institutions, and local communities to effectively identify and address gender-specific barriers. The Girls' Education Program (GEP) is dedicated to facilitating the self-empowerment of adolescent girls through a holistic framework that includes life skills sessions, mentorship programs, tailored material support, and active engagement with families, schools, and communities.

Since its inception in 2004, the Girls Education Program (GEP) has provided critical support to 367,584 girls across eight states in India, namely Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, as documented in the Global Indicator Report of 2021.

Life Skills: Core of our work

Life Skills encompass a spectrum of knowledge, attitudes, and abilities that enable girls to deal effectively with the demands and challenges in their everyday lives—whether at home, school, work, or in the larger community. When girls learn these skills and how to apply them in their daily lives, they are better equipped to handle the challenges they may face, from finding time to study to gender bias. Life skills are universally applicable skills that are interconnected and overlap with each other. No one skill can be developed in isolation. Life skills require the cross-sectional application of knowledge, attitudes, and skills which are crucial for quality education.

The Life Skills Education (LSE) Curriculum developed by Room to Read embodies this comprehensive approach, structured to foster competencies across three fundamental domains: self-awareness, self-efficacy, and social awareness.

Team & Qualifications

• Agency -Organization with 5-10 years in market and track record of successfully handling Situational Analysis/Qualitative Research, in the field of Gender and Life-Skills.
• Team Leader – Must have 10 years’ experience in Qualitative Research, particularly in applying Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) for both Systematic Review of Literature and Primary Data Narrative Analysis, in the field of Gender and Life-Skills.
• Supervisor – Must be a graduate and minimum have a 3 years’ experience in Qualitative Research, in the field of Gender and Life-Skills.
• Qualitative Field Experts/Data Collectors - Must be a graduate and minimum have a 2 years’ experience collecting Qualitative Data through FGDs and KIIs, in the field of Gender and Life-Skills.
• The Individual/Consulting Partner should have detailed and demonstrated experience in qualitative research on education, gender analysis, life skills, and adolescent /youth centric work.
• The Individual/Consultant must have a substantial experience in planning gender specific studies in educational domain.
• Proven excellent analytical and report writing skills (Two/Three sample of work shall be required for evaluation where key investigator was in the lead) 
• A good understanding of intersectional gender lenses within the education domain.

HOW TO APPLY

Proposals are invited from the interested agency for the above assignment and the last date for receiving the proposal is 10 Sep 2024 at procurement.india@roomtoread.org [do not copy anyone from RtR]

Kindly submit email with following subject lines:

o EMAIL (1): TECHNICAL PROPOSAL – Program Study

Submission terms:

• All applicants are advised to thoroughly review the SoW/ToR before applying.
• The financial quotes will be requested from only those agencies who have qualified technical evaluation and will be eligible for further evaluation. 
• The validity for the financial quotes would be 90 days .
• Incomplete applications or deviations from the prescribed process will result in automatic rejection.
• Proposals received after the prescribed deadline will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted agencies will be contacted and may be requested for face-to-face/online interaction/presentation.

For queries, please contact:

Vivek Shrawat

vivek.shrawat@roomtoread.org

To download the full ToR, click here

Tags Education and Education Technology (edtech) Skill Development Research