UNICEF Thailand is seeking a qualified institution (company, academic institution, and/or foundation) to conduct an evaluation of the UNICEF education programme to support equity and learning in Thailand (2020-2024)   Background The overall national vision for education in Thailand derives from the Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the draft 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan (NESDP). These are further complemented by two reform agendas, the 20-Year National Strategy and a cross-cutting economic model, Thailand 4.0 with its focus on human capital development and global competitiveness. Supporting the national agendas are the sectoral visions and plans: the 20-year Education Master Plan (2017-2036), underpinned by the five-year Education Development Plans which are translated into annual implementation plans and budgets. The Government has also established an Independent Committee for Education Reform to offer suggestions to the Cabinet on child development, teacher development, education management, the restructuring of education-related agencies and the reduction of disparities in education.   Central to all the policy frameworks and documents are the foundational principles of security, prosperity and sustainability; and an enhanced focus on the role of a reformed education system in equipping the future generations with 21st century skills, addressing the skills mismatch, mainstreaming equality considerations into the policy formulation process, and improving national competitiveness and excellence. The focus on equity is reflected in the creation of the Equitable Education Fund (EEF) which provides targeted support to disadvantaged children and students, as well as teacher development, across all levels of education.   The education sector in Thailand over the last decade has significantly expanded access to education across all levels and socioeconomic groups thanks to the progressive and generous education policy that provides 15 years of free education for all children. In the last five years, these gains have been most evident in pre-primary and secondary education levels, while primary education—which already had strong enrolment rates, has achieved near universal primary completion rate. In 2019, net attendance ratio (adjusted) stood at 95.5 per cent for primary-school age children attending primary school, 86.5 per cent for lower secondary age children attending lower secondary school or higher and 69.5 per cent for upper secondary age children attending upper secondary school or higher.[1] By 2022, these attendance ratios stood at 93.5, 84.9, and 74.0 per cent respectively.   Despite overall high enrolment rates there exists some inefficiencies and learning inequalities across all levels of the education system. Children from the poorest quintile have a lower primary completion rate than children from the wealthiest quintile.[2] The steep decline in completion rates from primary to lower and upper secondary education is not in keeping with Thailand’s level of economic development and coincides with the end of compulsory education at the primary level. Three out of ten children between the ages of 7 and 14 are still unable to demonstrate foundational reading skills.[3] Regionally, the southern region has a lower primary completion rate than others at 95 per cent. While the progressive education policy which includes migrant children has facilitated more than 164,000 migrant children who are enrolled in school within Thailand, there are still an estimated 200,000 migrant children remaining out of school.[4] Upper-secondary school-age children, especially boys, make up nearly 85 per cent of the national out-of-school population.   Following the COVID-19 pandemic, a UNICEF’s High-Frequency Surveys (HFS) in 2022 pointed to higher dropout rates and lower school enrolment for poorer households, particularly in the northeast of Thailand, with the lowest rate of return to education (of children aged 7-17) at 81 per cent compared to a national average of 94 per cent.[5]   Objectives, Purpose & Expected results   The primary purpose of this evaluation is to enhance UNICEF’s accountability to key stakeholders and contribute to the design and development of the 2027-2032 UNICEF Thailand County Programme. The evaluation will also inform implementation in the remaining period of the current education programme 2022-2026. The evaluation will contribute to the overall organizational education knowledge base with additional learnings from Thailand.   Under this overarching purpose, the evaluation has the following specific objectives:   To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and strategic positioning of the UNICEF Thailand education programme, with due consideration of a hybrid country office operating in an upper-middle income economy. Support an accountability objective by providing an independent assessment of progress towards expected results of the education programme, and the programme’s contribution to national education targets. To review and reconstruct as needed the programme theory of change particular to the current programme and useful for the development of the next country programme, including key risks and underlying assumptions. To provide a set of forward-looking and actionable recommendations on how the UNICEF Thailand education programme can most effectively position itself and build on its comparative advantage to deliver the expected results in the current programme cycle and next programming cycle, taking into consideration national education priorities and the 2030 SDG 4 targets.     Description of the assignment   SCOPE OF EVALUATION   The evaluation will focus on the implementation period from 2020 to 2024. This means the evaluation will overlap two programme cycles (2017-2021 and 2022-2026). Geographic coverage includes all areas of the country where the programme has been implemented. Thematically, all three outputs of the programme and the relevant activities contributing to them are within the scope of the evaluation. As the education programme is broad in its scope and has multiple interlinked thematic workstreams which are at different levels of maturity and anchored at the national or subnational level aligned with the decentralized structure of the education sector, the evaluation will prioritize 3-4 thematic workstreams to be considered for a deep dive based on mutually agreed criteria during the inception phase. Within this thematic scope, specific focus will be placed on the following areas:   Prioritising equity and learning Programme coherence, including coordination and linkages between downstream and upstream work and partnership dynamics Strategic positioning of the programme to response to the unique context, emerging issues, and priorities. This includes the structural factors that facilitate or hinder programme results achievement.   The evaluation is focused on the UNICEF Thailand Education Programme, and the complementary or cross-cutting programmes of UNICEF Thailand, such as early childhood development or adolescent development and participation, are not within the scope of the evaluation. However, where initiatives are in the education programme change logic and collaborate with other sections, such as the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the Safe to Learn initiatives, these components will be considered within the scope of the evaluation.     Location and Duration   The assignment is expected to be completed within 7 months after the signing of the contract, tentatively from January 2025 to July 2025, including time for review of deliverables by the evaluation management team and the ERG. A detailed workplan and work allocation will be agreed between UNICEF and the awarded contractor. The assignment will be completed at the contractor’s premises. The contractor will be responsible for acquiring resources and facilities required for its completion, including any travel arrangements. Regular virtual or in-person meetings are expected. Travel is expected for this assignment (please refer to guidance under section 9).   For full details, please refer to the attached Terms of Reference.   This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system (UNGM).   By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html .   In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission.   Please note that in order to access the full-set of tender documents through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (1) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (2) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering.   Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated.   All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log-in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender. Should you have any questions against this solicitation, please submit your queries to [email protected] - no later than 25 November 2024 so that all queries could be clarified and circulated to all bidders before the deadline. Appreciate if you could confirm your interest in this bidding by Monday 11 November  2024 COB Bangkok time.   We look forward to receiving your proposals within the given timeline.   Best regards, UNICEF Supply team