Curriculum Development Expert

The Government of Lebanon, with support from the international community, has launched the Reaching All Children with Education (RACE) initiative. First launched in 2013, RACE seeks to improve access to formal education for 460,000 Syrian refugee children and underprivileged Lebanese children in the country. Efforts under this new phase of RACE 2 are expected to minimize the short and medium-term costs of displacement for refugee families, while strengthening the long-term capacity of the Lebanese education system to prepare children for life and work once regional stability returns. MEHE-GD, with the support of CERD, is responsible for implementing the S2R2 program.

The Program Development Objective is to promote equitable access, enhance quality of learning, and strengthen the systems in Lebanon’s education sector in response to the protracted refugee crisis. The key results are as follows:

• Increase in the proportion of school-aged Lebanese and non-Lebanese children (3–18) enrolled in formal education (disaggregated by school type, education cycle, nationality, and gender);
• Increase in the proportion of students passing their grades, and transitioning to the next (disaggregated by school type, grade, nationality, and gender); and
• Improvement in MEHE’s capacity to review, evaluate, and update Program implementation.

Under the S2R2 Program, the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) is looking for a Curriculum Development Expert.

The Curriculum Development Expert will carry the following tasks:

1. Providing capacity building to CERD’s units and key staffs on the curriculum development process based on a clear capacity building plan to be developed within three months after signing of contract.
2. Providing technical assistance and strategic guidance to the Joint Academic Departments to achieve the objectives set in the S2R2 program related to curriculum development, which include ensuring all the needed design and development phases are duly planned and implemented successfully.
3. Supporting the whole curriculum development process based on the approved annual work plan, the progress made and other relevant queries made by CERD’s.
4. Advising on the design and supporting the coordination of the curriculum development work plan with all the needed resources.
5. Ensuring that the structure needed for the curriculum design and development committees is defined and support its operationalization and provide a clear rationale on their roles, responsibilities, selection process and workflows.
6. Supporting in the drafting of a curriculum development work plan based on all relevant CERD documentation, including support to the consultation and approval processes.
7. Advising on the planning of all curriculum development phases, including activities, timeline, budget and expected outputs from each activity.
8. Supporting CERD in consultations and discussions of the detailed work plan with all relevant instances, namely the Curriculum Higher Committee.
9. Advising on relevant and detailed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
10. Advising CERD President and CERD relevant entities on ensuring approved work plan and SOPs are properly published on CERD’s website and updated, when applicable and needed.
11. Advising CERD President and CERD relevant entities on securing visibility on other CERD’s social media of the aforementioned documentation as well as other curriculum development phases and pertaining documentation.
12. Supporting the Joint Academic Departments at CERD on securing all curriculum related deliverables –as defined in the Annual Work Plan - are available for the verification agency and audit, as per the defined processes and deadlines in the Program’s Appraisal Document (PAD).
13. Supporting in the coordination and planning of the S2R2 curriculum related components, namely the 7^th Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLI 7), for the current 2018 Annual Work Plan.
14. Advising and taking an active role in the preparation of CERD’s S2R2 2019 Annual Work Plan in due course, mainly with regards to DLI 7 and to other curriculum related DLIs, DLRs, and deliverables.
15. Supporting in the monitoring of the progress of CERD’s approved deliverables and setting the relevant indicators for their monitoring and evaluation.
16. Advising on the needed research to inform the curriculum development and coordinating the progress with CERD’s Educational Research Bureau – based on a research strategy approved by CERD.
17. Advising on comparative approaches on curricula development.
18. Ensuring that a comprehensive literature review is conducted showcasing new and innovative curriculum practices.
19. Ensuring that a comprehensive situational analysis is conducted in order to inform the new curriculum including all previous CERD workshops and endeavors in this regard. 
20. Ensuring that all previous workshops conducted under the curriculum realm are analyzed and advising on the additional needed consultation circles and stakeholders.
21. Advising and supporting the management of the planning, development, field-testing, and evaluation of curriculum with CERD’s assigned teams.
22. Facilitating reflection sessions and meetings as needed with various stakeholders from the private and public sector as well as actors from the civil society.
23. Working with / coordinating the work of subject matter committees in light of the predefined planning, structure, workflows, deadlines, etc. 
24. Advising on and coordinating the design and development of teaching / learning materials to be pre-tested and piloted in collaboration with CERD’s relevant Departments in order to design innovative and effective national curricula.
25. Advising on and coordinating the integration of technology in the curriculum and the definition of a framework for CERD’s digital production strategy.
26. Supporting the management of the textbooks / digital books development process and overseeing all phases, including review, selection, distribution and subsequent professional development.
27. Ensuring the curriculum pilot phase is planned in a well-defined manner and ensuring that a detailed work plan is prepared for this phase by the concerned teams.
28. Consulting and advising CERD’s Educational Resources Bureau in order to align the work of instructional designers and to monitor the workflows and content curation and development processes. 
29. Advising on the design of the needed professional development for the curriculum development teams with CERD’s Pre and In-Service Training Bureau and any other relevant teams.
30. Ensuring that all trainings on the curriculum foundations, the approach, etc. are planned and conducted to all curriculum development committees and concerned stakeholders. 
31. Contributing in building the capacity of CERD concerned and designated staff. A capacity building plan is needed for the transfer of knowledge and skills, to be approved by CERD’s relevant heads.
32. Convening, preparing, attending and reporting on all working sessions and meetings related to the curriculum development component.
33. Drafting other materials as needed with input from targeted stakeholders and experts (e.g. power point presentations, group exercises, case studies, benchmarks and guides, etc.).
34. Facilitating key meetings and workshops within the work plan.
35. Preparing reports (weekly – monthly – Quarterly) to showcase progress on the agreed deliverables and flag any pending matters.
36. Other tasks as needed by the job and assigned by CERD S2R2 Steering Committee.

Previous Experience

1. Minimum of 10 years of experience in leading a curriculum development process at a national level.
2. Minimum of 10 years of experience in developing institutional capacities and providing technical assistance in the field of curricula design, development, preparation and implementation. 
3. Demonstrated aptitude for, knowledge of, and agility with new learning technologies in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment.
4. Experience in practicing and implementing developing curriculum specific methodology.

Proven experience in the competency-based approach and UBD framework is a strong asset