These Terms of Reference define the activities that will be provided for the Language Component of the project Finland’s Support to the Ukrainian Education Reform (later: Project), in particular for Cluster 2 Education Promotion.

1.      Background info on the project

Learning Together is a four-year collaborative project that started between Ukraine and Finland in July 2018, and was joined by the EU in late 2018. The work is scheduled to last until July 2022. The Project is implemented by FCG International.

The project has national coverage and it focuses on supporting the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform, especially in primary education, and is designed around three thematic clusters which are inter-linked: Teacher Competence Development, Education Promotion, and New Education Environments.

The total budget is 8 million euros out of which 6 million euros is Finnish funding. In addition, there is a 2-million-euro top-up funding tool for enhancing the quality of instruction in Ukrainian SL/L2 among national minorities, provided by the EU.

2.      Context of Assignment

The new Law on Education was adopted in Ukraine on September 5, 2017. Article 7 of the Law refers to an increase in subjects taught in the Ukrainian language for national minorities at the secondary education level.

In a letter dated September 29, 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine requested the Venice Commission, an advisory body in the field of constitutional law, to conclude on Article 7 of the Law on Education, which regulates the use of the state language, as well as minority languages and other languages of education.

In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Science prepared a Roadmap for minority languages, focusing on the need to improve the quality of teaching Ukrainian among ethnic communities, especially in Transcarpathian and Chernivtsi regions.

Transcarpathia and Chernivtsi are multinational and multicultural regions with Hungarian and Romanian among the minority language groups. The following districts are densely populated by national communities - Hungarians: Berehovе, Vynohradiv, Uzhhorod, and Romanians: Tiachiv, Hertsa, Novoselytsia, Storozhynets, Hlyboka, Chernivtsi. In the 2019/2020 school year, in the Transcarpathian region, there are 72 schools with the Hungarian language of instruction; and 27 schools with Ukrainian and Hungarian languages of instruction; 12 schools with the Romanian language of instruction, and 2 schools with Ukrainian and Romanian languages of instruction. In total, 17192 students receive instruction in Hungarian and 2591 students receive instruction in Romanian in this region. In the Chernivtsi region, there are 56 schools with the Romanian language of instruction and 18 – with Ukrainian and Romanian languages of instruction. In total, 13518 students receive instruction in Romanian in this region.

The above-mentioned schools deliver instruction mostly in minority languages, while the Ukrainian language is learned only as a separate subject. These schools do not provide students with enough proficiency in the language to enter tertiary education in Ukraine. A high percentage of the school graduates are failing in independent evaluation tests in the Ukrainian language and literature that is an integral component of their admission to further education.

The spring camps on External Independent Test (ZNO) in Ukrainian for school graduates (11^th-grade students) who study in national minority languages and summer language camps for students of Hungarian and Romanian national minorities were among the immediate actions within the short-term perspective. The Project had successfully implemented Spring and Summer Camps activities in 2018-2019. To ensure the sustainability of this particular activity, the Project aims at providing a guide on conducting language camps to the schools in question and making sure that the materials are available for all the teachers.

3.      Goal

The overall goal of this assignment is to develop the Guide on language camps that may be used in the future with regular teachers in Transcarpathian and Chernivtsi regions as a school camp activity.

4.      Scope of work

A detailed concept and workplan for the development of the Guide will be finalized by the Service Provider with guidance by the National Project Director, the Chief Technical Advisor, and the Project’s Language Expert.

The scope of work of the Service Provider under this ToR shall include, but not necessarily be limited to the following:

4.1 To design the Guide and prepare the final product taking into account the following:

4.1.1 The Guide should consist of at least two sections:

• Spring Camps (the objective is to prepare students from the Romanian and Hungarian communities of Chernivtsi and Transcarpathian regions for the Ukrainian language ZNO by explaining the format of the exam and motivating them for further preparation, providing students with useful resources and platforms for ZNO preparation. The Spring Camps are to enhance 10 – 11th-grade students’ proficiency in the Ukrainian language and literature, to perform better during final testing and, therefore, to have better chances to enter higher education institutions).
• Summer Camps (the purpose is to activate grades 5-9 students from Romanian and Hungarian communities of Chernivtsi and Transcarpathia to practice their skills in the Ukrainian language with their peers).

4.1.2 The Guide should be a step-by-step instruction to organizing and implementing camps in the regions (taking into account both the organization and the content of the camps).

4.1.3 The content part of the Guide should comprise at least two aspects: (1) preparation of trainers for camps; (2) camp activities (with detailed explanations of how to organize and conduct them).

4.1.4 Preparation of trainers for camps should include both explanatory text and videos (at least 5 videos for each spring and summer camps; at least 10 videos in total). Lecturers of the video – TBD (the project reserves the right to recommend lecturers).

4.1.5 Camp activities should

• promote interactive working methods, cooperative learning;
• develop transversal competences: thinking and learning to learn; cultural competence, interaction, and self-expression; taking care of oneself and managing daily life; multiliteracy (including media and information literacy); ICT competence; working life competence and entrepreneurship; participation, involvement and building a sustainable future;
• include various language learning strategies (cognitive; metacognitive; social/affective) and language use strategies (interactive; interpretive; productive);
• contain activities for different speakers: leveled activities, activities for children with special needs, etc.;
• have interactive content, e.g. links/QR-codes with games, songs, or other forms to consolidate language, involve different modalities of students (visual, kinaesthetic, acoustic, etc.).

4.1.6        The Guide should search for the possibilities for the inclusive environment, catering to every person without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status (e.g. disability, age, family status, health status, place of residence, economic and social situation, etc.). The Guide should not include discriminatory statements/images, that shape stereotypical perceptions (e.g. boys play football, girls bake pies with moms, etc.)

4.1.7        The Guide should have a modern design.

4.2 A service provider should conduct continuous consultation concerning related to this assignment issues with the Language Component team or nominated representatives of the Project.

5.      Expected deliverables

The Service Provider will submit the following deliverables:

5.1.  Present ideas and a working plan for the Guide

5.2. Design a creative concept for the assignment

5.3. Draft an inception report outlining the activities to be undertaken, with an implementation plan and timelines

5.4. Implement the assignment

5.5. Provide a Final Report which shows the methodology used, activities undertaken, successes, challenges, results (planned and unplanned), lessons learned, and future recommendations.

6.      Resource Planning and Timeline

The amount of this assistance is assessed as 4 months, including preparation. The task should be implemented not later than April 2021.  The final timeline of the assignment will be agreed upon with the Project.

The details of the assignment, terms, and conditions will be specified in the contract between the FCG International Ltd (Contractor) and a local service provider/agency (Consultant) that provides the local consultancy team of local experts.

The maximum Total Budget for the assignment is 20,000 euros.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation, changes to this ToR may be required.

7.     Submission requirements

The Proposal must include the following:

7.1. A technical proposal including the intended approach and the planned activities, the implementation, the management of the undertaking, including an operational work plan with timelines.
Templates 1-5 should be used when drafting the technical proposal. All the templates could be found below.

7.2. Breakdown of costs. The budget breakdown must include two separate sections: ‘Fees of experts’ and ‘Other costs’. The fees shall be defined on rates based on working days or working months. The other Costs must be broken down to correspond to the Technical Proposal and Work Plan. The Budget Breakdown must be in Euros.
Template 5 should be used when preparing the budget.

7.3. The Curriculum Vitae of each member of the team (Templates 3 and 4 should be used).

7.4. Official documents proving the status of the organization and the document proving the financial capacity (annual turnover and profit/loss) of the organization.

Copies of main registration documents.

Other relevant supporting documents may be attached as an annex.

The proposal must be in English.

The proposal must be submitted by January 8, 2021.

All the questions should be sent to [email protected], not later than December 31, 2020.

8.      Schedule of Payments and Deliverables

9.      Guiding principles

Manual for Bilateral Programs by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, revised version 2018 https://um.fi/publications/-/asset_publisher/TVOLgBmLyZvu/content/manual-for-bilateral-programmes is applied in the planning and implementation of this assignment. This manual is applied in all cooperation that has been agreed between Finland and Ukraine.

10.  Mandate

The Service Provider is expected and entitled to discuss issues relevant to the assignment with relevant parties, government authorities, and other relevant organizations and individuals. However, the Service Provider does not have any mandate to make commitments on behalf of government authorities in Ukraine and Finland, or on behalf of the Contractor, FCG International Ltd, especially.