Early Learning Costing and Finance Consultant (remote with travel for 10 months)

Under the leadership of MEHRD, and in collaboration with DFAT and other members of the Education Development Partners Coordination Group (EDPCG), the international consultant will produce a rigorous, Solomon Islands-specific economic analysis of the cost of providing free PPY and ECE to all children through existing programmes; a set of costed scenarios with five-year projections, financing options and explicit trade-off analysis; and a policy paper that serves both as an information document and as an advocacy instrument for increasing public financing for free early learning. UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling. UNICEF is a place where careers are built. We offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package. Visitour websiteto learn more about what we do at UNICEF. For every child, the right to education How can you make a difference? The Government of Solomon Islands (SIG) has committed to a national reform program intended to support economic mobility and social equity as key government priority areas. This initiative includes rolling out free education from 2027, with the potential to include Early Childhood Education (ECE) through to the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) and TAFE/TVET institutions, though the precise details and plans are still in development. Solomon Islands has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to education financing, allocating one of the largest shares of the national budget to the education sector. Education expenditure has exceeded international benchmarks, with approximately 25-30% of government expenditure directed toward education in recent years. In July 2026, the GREAT Government of Solomon Islands released its policy document outlining key policy priority areas, including free education as a flagship government priority. While the government has previously invested in education through school grants and subsidies, many families still face high indirect costs. In September 2026, the Prime Minister reaffirmed this commitment in Parliament, indicating that the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) had costed the full roll-out at an additional SBD 1.1 billion, and that Government had returned those figures to the education sector for further review ahead of a bipartisan discussion and submission to Parliament. As part of these efforts, the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) established the National Free Education Policy Taskforce, consisting of core government ministries, education providers, civil society representatives, and development partners under the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and overall guidance and close collaboration with the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC). MEHRD has asked partners, including UNICEF, for technical support to conduct the economic and policy analysis needed to translate the free education vision into practical, fiscally sustainable costed pathways, models, and options. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia, is supporting MEHRD and other partners on the wider analysis, costing, and planning required for the roll-out by providing technical support focused on policy, grants, and the overall cost of education. Early learning in the Solomon Islands spans ECE for 3–4-year-olds and the Primary Preparation Year (PPY) for 5-yearolds. PPY was introduced in 2018 and rolled out nationwide in 2020; it sits within the basic education system and is the entry point to formal schooling. ECE remains outside the formal system and is delivered largely through communitybased provision, although the Education Act 2023 provides for the registration of early childhood education centers, recognizes ECE as a standalone sub-sector, and establishes a pathway toward formalization. Neither is compulsory: under the Education Act 2023, compulsory education runs from Year 1, at age six, through to Year 9 or age 16. MEHRD has committed to full enrolment of all five-year-olds by 2030, in line with SDG target 4.2, and is currently developing an ECE curriculum for 3- and 4-year-olds. The country-led evaluation of the PPY programme 2018–2022, completed in August 2023 by MEHRD and UNICEF showed the net enrolment ratio for five-year-olds rising from 21.7 per cent in 2016 to 29.5 per cent in 2018 and 32.3 per cent in 2019 nationally, and averaging 36.8 per cent across the four evaluated provinces in 2022 — with wide variation, from 12 per cent in Honiara City to 33 per cent in Malaita and 51 per cent in Guadalcanal and Makira. Cost was identified as a binding constraint: parents reported PPY fees of around SBD 1,000 per child per year, and families unable to meet them either kept children out of early learning or enrolled them directly into Year 1, from where they were later moved back into PPY. This is one driver of an overage enrolment rate of 46.3 per cent across the evaluated provinces, with children aged five to twelve sharing the same classroom, which the evaluation found to be materially damaging the programme’s internal efficiency. The principal risk in a sector-wide free education reform is that early learning is treated as residual and left out by the larger and more politically visible costs of primary, secondary and tertiary provision. MEHRD wants to ensure that early learning is explicitly costed, financed and protected within the free education roll-out, so that every child in Solomon Islands secures at least one year of quality early learning before entering primary school, and so that a credible, costed pathway towards progressively free ECE for 3–4-year-olds and PPY for 5-year olds is placed on the table. The early learning consultancy is also the vehicle for answering, with Solomon Islands numbers, the financing questions the 2023 PPY evaluation raised but could not resolve: what long-term financial commitment is required for effective reform, expansion and strengthening of PPY and ECE; how limited resources can be allocated more efficiently; what steps would secure success when more resources become available; and what sustainable  funding mechanisms for PPY and ECE would look like in practice. Under the leadership of MEHRD, and in collaboration with DFAT and other members of the Education Development Partners Coordination Group (EDPCG), the international consultant will produce a rigorous, Solomon Islands-specific economic analysis of the cost of providing free PPY and ECE to all children through existing programmes; a set of costed scenarios with five-year projections, financing options and explicit trade-off analysis; and a policy paper that serves both as an information document and as an advocacy instrument for increasing public financing for free early learning. The analysis is specifically expected to produce analysis and recommendations to support the inclusion of PPY in the Free Education roll-out for the first phase and ECE with subsequent phases, with proactive financing options (if determined feasible) and/or within a set timeframe if additional preparation of that system is considered to be required. It is deliberately timed to inform MEHRD’s review of the free education costing, the 2027 national budget cycle, and the development of the National Education Action Plan (NEAP) 2027–2031, for which national consultations were launched in September 2026. If you would like to know more