Consultant for strengthening national assessment, New Delhi, 1Month17days, Remotely (Open for International Candidates Only) Req#596042

The consultant will provide independent technical review and advisory support to strengthen the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) as a national, system-level assessment of school education. ************************************************************************************ Contract Duration:1 Months 17 Days Working arrangement: HomeBased ************************************************************************************ 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 consultant will provide independent technical review and advisory support to strengthen the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) as a national, system-level assessment of school education. The assignment will focus on: • reviewing the current PRS approach and relevant previous NAS cycles; • assessing opportunities to strengthen the technical quality, comparability and inclusiveness of PRS; • providing recommendations on how PRS can generate more actionable evidence on learning gaps, misconceptions and factors associated with learning outcomes; • identifying pathways through which PRS evidence can better inform education system improvement, including curriculum, textbooks, teaching-learning processes, teacher development, assessment practices and teaching-learning resources; and • developing a practical technical pathway for consideration in strengthening the PRS 2027 cycle. The role will be to review existing approaches, identify gaps and opportunities, provide technically sound options and recommendations, and propose practical pathways for consideration by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L), Ministry of Education, and PARAKH, NCERT. Background: India has established a national large-scale assessment system through the National Achievement Survey (NAS), which has evolved into the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS). PRS provides system-level evidence on student learning and is intended to support understanding of the status of learning and areas requiring improvement across the school education system. The PRS approach includes assessment of student learning alongside contextual information intended to provide insights into factors associated with learning outcomes. The existing operational framework positions PRS as a standardised, equitable and inclusive national assessment and as a tool for understanding the health and performance of the education system. UNICEF has supported the strengthening of national assessment and evidence systems in collaboration with PARAKH/NCERT. Previous national discussions and technical reviews have highlighted areas for continued strengthening, including comparability across assessment cycles, competency mapping, identification of learning gaps and misconceptions, inclusive assessment, analysis of contextual factors, and improved use of assessment evidence for system improvement. The next PRS cycle provides an opportunity to consider how existing assessment evidence can be further strengthened and translated into more actionable information for education system improvement. Rationale: While PRS provides important information on learning outcomes, there is an opportunity to strengthen the extent to which the assessment can generate diagnostic and actionable system-level evidence. In particular, there is value in examining how PRS can better support understanding of: • what students are able or unable to do at different competency levels; • common learning gaps, misconceptions and response patterns; • changes in learning outcomes across assessment cycles; • equity and inclusion across different groups of learners; • factors associated with variations in learning outcomes; and • implications of assessment findings for curriculum, textbooks, pedagogy, teacher development, assessment practices and learning resources. The assignment therefore requires specialised international expertise in large-scale educational assessment, assessment design and analysis, comparability, inclusive assessment and use of assessment evidence for education system improvement. The assignment will not involve primary data collection, field visits or implementation of assessment activities. Scope of work The consultant will undertake a desk-based review of relevant PRS/NAS documentation, previous technical recommendations and relevant international assessment practices and prepare a Technical Note on Strengthening PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan. The technical note will cover the following areas: 1. Review of the current PRS approach The consultant will: 1.1 Review relevant PRS and previous NAS documentation, including the assessment framework, domains and competencies, test design, sampling, contextual questionnaires, analysis and reporting. 1.2 Review relevant recommendations from previous national technical discussions and relevant international assessment practices and approaches. 1.3 Identify key strengths, gaps and opportunities for further strengthening PRS as a national/system-level assessment. 2. Identify priority areas for technical strengthening Based on the review, the consultant will provide technical recommendations and possible pathways in the following areas: 2.1 Assessment framework and competencies: Opportunities to strengthen assessment of what students know and can do across competencies, including application and higher-order competencies where appropriate. 2.2 Comparability across assessment cycles: Approaches to strengthen comparability and interpretation of changes in learning outcomes over time, including linking, anchor items and scaling, where appropriate. 2.3 Inclusive assessment: Approaches to strengthen participation, accessibility, accommodations, analysis and reporting for diverse learner groups, including children with disabilities and other potentially under-represented groups. 2.4 Learning gaps and misconceptions: Approaches for identifying and reporting competency-level learning gaps, common errors, misconceptions, proficiency levels and response patterns. 2.5 Contextual and explanatory evidence: Opportunities to strengthen the use of contextual information to understand factors associated with variations in learning outcomes, including relevant student, teacher, classroom and school factors. 2.6 Analysis and interpretation: Approaches for generating more actionable evidence on competencies, equity, learning gaps, misconceptions and relevant factors associated with learning outcomes. 3. Identify pathways for using PRS evidence for education system improvement The consultant will examine how PRS evidence can better inform education system improvement, including: • curriculum and curricular expectations; • textbooks and learning materials; • teaching-learning processes and pedagogy; • teacher development; • assessment practices; and • teaching-learning resources. The consultant will propose an assessment-to-system-improvement pathway that links PRS evidence and identified learning gaps and misconceptions to their diagnosis, implications for the education system, and appropriate system level responses. 4. Develop a technical pathway for strengthening PRS 2027 Based on t