REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
(CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRMS SELECTION)

Republic of Moldova
Global Partnership for Education Project
Loan No./Credit No./ Grant No.TF 011810

Assignment Title: Consulting services on piloting of the School Readiness Monitoring Tool

Reference No.CQS-02/A.3.4.2

The Republic of Moldova has received a grant in the amount of US$4.4 million from the Global Partnership for Education Fund toward the cost of the implementation of the Consolidated Action Plan on Education, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds for consulting services. In this context, one of the GPE Project’s activities is the development and piloting of a School Readiness Monitoring Tool (SRMT). Ministry of Education (MoE) envisages having a measurement tool for school readiness of children at kindergarten level in order to make sure that expected outcomes are in line with school realities.

The consulting services (“the Services”) include the development of a survey instrument to monitor child readiness in the respective domains of early learning and development. The SRMT has already been developed with support of the UNICEF and the GPE Project is supporting the SRMT piloting. The SRMT will be improved taking into account the results of the pilot exercise. The objective of this assignment focuses on piloting of the SRMT and the selected consultant shall report on the following result:
 Revision of the SRMT indicators and finalizing the document, based on piloting results.
Piloting of the Tool is the stage preceding the review and finalization of SRMT. The sample for piloting will be 375 children from preparatory grades. Subsequently, the SRMT can be considered a relevant and valid document for educators across the country. The completed document can serve as a basis for the development of other related documents in early education field.

The estimated duration of the assignment is 6 months (January-June 2013).

The Ministry of Education now invites eligible consulting firms (“Consultants”) to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have the required qualifications and relevant experience to perform the Services. The shortlisting criteria are: 
• At least 5 years’ experience in Education, Pedagogy and Psychology;
• At least 5 years’ experience in ECD and research;
• Relevant professional experience (at least 5 years) related to ECD: standards development and/or implementation, validation and/or conceptualization and delivery of ECD programs based on the concept of child-centeredness.
Qualifications for experts:
• Expert in data processing;
• Experts in Education, Pedagogy, Psychology, with a specialization in the domain of cognitive psychology, with excellent methodological skills and/or an evaluation specialist measuring learning outcomes;
• Excellent knowledge of Romanian and Russian languages;
• Good knowledge of English (strongly preferred).

The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 1.9 of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants [under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants] by World Bank Borrowers January 2011 edition, setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. 

Consultants may associate with other firms in the form of a joint venture or a subconsultancy to enhance their qualifications.

Further information and detailed ToR can be obtained at the address below during office hours from 09:00 to 17:00. 

Expressions of interest in English must be delivered in a written form to the address below (in person, or by mail, or by fax, or by e-mail) by 14 December 2012, 17:00.

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova
1 Piaţa Marii Adunări Naţionale, MD-2033, office 431,
Chişinău, Moldova 
Attn: Ruslan Malai, Procurement Specialist
Tel: +373 22 233139
Fax: +373 22 233897
E-mail: ruslanmalaipge@gmail.com; cc: proiectpge@gmail.com