Consultant for Learning Documentation for Literacy Project

Terms of Reference

Work: Hiring of 1 Consultant for Learning Documentation for Literacy Project 

Contract term: November 2024 to April 2025 (6 months with scope of extension)

Location: New Delhi

About Room To Read

Room to Read is a global organization transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, our innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools that are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions.

By focusing on the quality of education provided within the communities and ensuring these outcomes are measured, we have created a model that can be replicated, localized, and sustained by governments. With its global headquarters in San Francisco, Room to Read to date has benefited 32 million children across 21 low-income countries.

Room to Read India was established in 2003 and presently has programs in ten states – Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

By working closely with the government and other partner organizations to create equal and robust education systems that reach the most vulnerable children and improve teaching and learning environments and materials, as of 31st December 2021, Room to Read India’s interventions resulted in: Establishment of 15,553 libraries, 367,844 girls benefitting, Training of 31, 395 teachers in various programs, Tertiary education/job opportunities for 63.8% of scholars within a year after graduation and Publication of 220 Room to Read India titles, and distribution over 9.35 million books.

Position Overview:

Room to Read-India is undertaking a project in Jharkhand towards improving Foundational Literacy outcomes for Grade 1 and Grade 2 students. The project focuses on strengthening implementation fidelity through government systems and includes capacity building for system actors on literacy instructions, reading activities, coaching and supportive supervision and provision of supplementary classroom materials and cluster libraries.

Room to Read support varies for training and coaching across two select geographic areas and thereby, the program implementation modalities also differ, in the following way:

• Hazaribagh District: Block-level support within the district for training, coaching and supportive supervision.
• Giridih District: District-level support for training, coaching and supportive supervision.

We are looking for a short-term consultant who will report to the Program Officer (Learning and Innovation). The consultant will play a crucial role in capturing qualitative insights, streamlining operational processes, showcasing innovative practices and preparing learning reports. The consultant will be responsible for documenting how the program design and plans are being implemented across different levels in the system, what are the key learnings and opportunities ahead. This includes documenting the ongoing activities at the district, block, cluster and school levels, collating experiences and feedback of system stakeholders, reviewing existing data/resources and finally, compiling learning reports.

Key tasks include: conducting desk and field research, observation of program activities, documenting as-is status of program implementation, collating first-hand experiences/case-stories, reviewing and analysing monitoring data, and gathering feedback of program participants from the government system, and internal teams through field visits and remote interactions.  

The Strengthening Foundational Literacy Project is now in its second year, with inputs provided both at the classroom level and the system level through activities such as provisioning of supplementary instructional material, blended capacity building of stakeholders, and monitoring, reviews and coaching support.

In this learning capture, we aim to understand how government stakeholders and project teams are engaging in various activities and the feedback emerging from key stakeholders at the District, Block, and Cluster levels. Clearly document the differences in inputs and quality observed through interviews and focus group discussions with government officials and internal teams. Additionally, identify areas for development and provide actionable recommendations for strengthening project implementation.

Broadly, in each district, the Consultant will engage with at least:

• 10-12 Government officials (including district, block, and cluster officials)
• 6-8 government school teachers
• 5-6 internal team members

Note: This is an estimation. The number of stakeholders will be subject to final sampling and contextual factors.

The consultant will be working on the following:

Prepare a framework for differentiated delivery and learning report from current delivery status
(topic tbc - Effective strategies for district wide-scale up: learnings from GDH and HZB)

		Timelines
Scope for Consultant	Key Activities	Nov ‘24	Dec ‘24	Jan '25	Feb '25	Mar '25	Apr '25
Prepare a learning report capturing input variations in delivery models across 2 districts - with actionable insights to strengthen implementation	Review of literature, existing TOC/frameworks and monitoring data from the project	Nov24
	Propose a framework for capturing insights from differentiated delivery from ongoing implementation across 2 districts	Nov24
	Share inception report including framework for study and learning questions	Nov-Dec 24
	Share research plan with sampling strategy, data collection tools/formats for qualitative interviews, FGDs, surveys, etc and work plan	Nov-Dec 24
	Initiate data collection in two districts		Dec24 –Jan 25
	Data analysis and first- draft of report and findings discussed			Jan 25
	Refining of draft, additional data collection (as required)				Feb-Mar 25
	Final report prepared, disseminated internally					Mar-Ap 25

Key deliverables and payment structures:

1. Inception report with framework - Dec’24 (15%)
2. Research plan with sampling, data collection tools, and work plan – Dec’24 (15%)
3. Completion of data collection report, and submission of cleaned transcripts/data/info– Feb’25 (30%)
4. Submission of final report – Apr’25 (40%)

Key Work Areas	Description	Timelines
Inception report, framework, and research plan for learning capture	Succinctly present overview of ongoing program inputs across different levels of the system with planned v/s actual timelines in the project. Propose a framework to collate program insights on implementation including current project practices undertaken by the RtR team and government officials, and feedback on each activity and processes Develop learning questions, sampling strategy, data collection tools, field engagement plan Share work plan detailing research activities, data analysis, report drafting and reviewing process Identify areas of further exploration in future studies	Nov – Dec 2024 (Expected travel to project site 5-7 days per month)
Data collection, analysis, and report of initial findings	Conduct field visits, surveys, KIIs, FGDs, and other data collection strategies to capture data to explore learning questions Provide structured documentation of transcripts and data collected, present emerging insights from data analysis, highlight need for further data collection (if required), in the form of an initial findings report Co-develop learning report format basis review of initial findings report	Jan 2024 – Feb 2025   (Expected travel to project site 7-10 days per month)
Learning report and presentation	Finalize error-free well designed learning report through regular reviews with internal team Include case stories capturing best practices and feedback from stakeholders Present key findings and actionable insights to internal teams	March – April 2025 (Expected travel to project site 3-5 days per month)
Other areas of support	Support in organizing learning meetings and facilitating the same between India Country Office and State Office members	Ongoing (to be facilitated in-person/ online mode)

Other agreements by the consultant:

• Agree to take the child protection policy and PSEA policy of Room to Read and sign a contract in this regard before going to the field for data collection.
• Be willing to travel to project implementation sites as per project requirements.
• Participate in orientation meetings by Room to Read.
• Share the status of work weekly to the program focal point by creating an activity tracker.
• Participate in debriefing meetings with Room to Read to discuss data collection experience, raise any areas of potential concern, and recommend any improvements to the process for future.
• Securely store the data with full confidentiality and submit the entire data with the program Department of Room to Read India Trust. 
• Take prior consent of the stakeholders before performing the assignment in every aspect.

Qualifications:

• Master's in Education/Social Science/Social Work, or equivalent from a reputable institution.
• 5-8 years of relevant experience in qualitative research, process documentation and presentations
• Familiarity with various programs and organizations in the field of early-grade reading/literacy, both in India and internationally.
• Demonstrated ability to undertake, interpret and analyse qualitative research and collate information in the form of compelling presentations and learning reports.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English and Hindi
• Knowledge/ training in systems thinking, human centred design will be an added advantage.

Technical Evaluation (out of 50):

• Professional Consultant / Academic background with demonstrated experience in process documentation, and creating learning/conceptual frameworks, as mentioned in the qualifications above. (Assessed through the CV and at least 3 work samples shared by the consultant, in terms of scope and standard of the work) Score - out of 25.
• Demonstrated experience in research and/or documentation related to children, foundational literacy, government system engagement/strengthening and other education issues. (Assessed by the work samples submitted and review of CV) Score - out of 25. 

Please note that shortlisted candidates, based on the initial screening, will be contacted for a brief assignment and interview as part of the final selection process.

Timeline:

The Consultant will be onboarded for a period of 6 months starting from November 2024 till April 2025.

How to Apply-

Interested candidates are requested to submit latest CV, 2-3 writing samples (professional/academic write-ups), and a short note on the interest for this position and the general period of availability for this work via email to procurement.india@roomtoread.org (without cc to anybody in RTR) no later than 28^th October 2024.

For queries, please write to Anshul.rampal@roomtoreadorg.

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