International Consultant - Mainstreaming of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Pre-Service Teacher Training at UNICEF

Purpose of the Assignment

• To undertake this work, the NCCE has requested UNICEF to hire a consultant to support their pre-service curriculum review.
• The assignment is critical to ensuring that Nigeria’s teacher training institutions embed effective and scalable FLN strategies in the foundational education system.
• This work will contribute to long-term education system strengthening and improve learning outcomes in early grades.

Scope of Work
Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Education, the consultant will report directly to the Education Manager (Learning) and will be responsible for the following:

• Conduct a desk review of the draft National Minimum Standards, including a literature review of regional and global best practices in Pre-service teacher training.
• Identify key gaps and opportunities in the integration of FLN principles, focusing on pedagogical practices, content delivery, assessment techniques, and instructional support within pre-service frameworks.
• Revise the National Minimum Standards to mainstream FLN based on the gaps identified in the literature review and alignment with global best practices.
• Develop a consultation package in collaboration with the NCCE and facilitate a stakeholder consultation meeting on the draft National Minimum Standards with support from the NCCE team
• Revision of the National Minimum Standards based on comments and inputs from the stakeholder consultation.
• Conduct validation of the National Minimum Standards and submit the final minimum standards after the validation.

Requirements
To qualify as an advocate for every child, you will have:

• An advanced university degree (master’s or higher) in Education Development, Education Policy, Teacher Training, International Relations, or a related field
• A minimum of 8 years of experience in improving learning quality, ideally with a focus on curriculum or learning materials development, teacher professional development, quality pedagogy and teaching and learning approaches in basic education.
• Demonstrable experience supporting the development, implementation and scale-up of effective approaches for improving learning quality, ideally focused on developing and rolling out quality, curriculum-aligned content for basic education focused on foundational literacy and numeracy.
• Proven experience in the integration of FLN principles into pre-service or in-service teacher education programs, ideally in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Demonstrated strong working knowledge and experience in current global issues and best practices in Education.
• Knowledge of the Nigerian political landscape and recent developments in education.
• Familiarity with the Nigerian education context will be considered an asset.
• Experience working with UN agencies or other international development agencies.
• A good understanding of UNICEF’s programmatic areas.
• Ability to work to tight timeframes and flexibility to adjust to the needs of the government and UNICEF
• Ability to present ideas concisely for diverse audiences and to give
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies is considered an asset. 
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.