Request for Proposal Notice

EDUCATION SAFE FROM DISASTERSRESEARCH

Request for Proposal: Critical Factors for Post-Disaster Educational Continuity

Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children’s lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential. We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. We have over two million supporters worldwide and raised 1.6 billion dollars in 2011 to reach more children than ever before, through programmes in health, nutrition, education, protection and child rights, also in times of humanitarian crises.

Save the Children International Asia Regional Office is inviting submissions for proposal ofdeliveringthe following research:

  • “Critical Factors for Post-Disaster Educational Continuity in Urban Flood Impacts in South and Southeast Asia”

1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this research is to learn from both prior research and recent practices, how to plan and promote educational continuity in the face of hazard and disaster impacts. The research will focus on education sector and school community policies and practices in response to flood impacts in urban settings, as these are among the most prevalent and recurring hazards in Asia region. The research will compare flood events of different scales in 3 Asian countries. Through the research, we want to learn how education is disrupted and impacted by flood situations, the critical enablers and blocker, as well as best practices, to minimize disruption and promote educational continuity.

2. TITLE

Critical Factors for Post-Disaster Educational Continuity in Urban Floods in South and Southeast Asia

3. PROJECT SUMMARY

This research addresses the questions of how children’s rights to safety and survival, and quality education are affected in flood situation. It aims to identify critical enabling and impeding factors for educational continuity, as well as effective ways that can ensure educational continuity are institutionalized and scaled up in flood-prone areas. It will be conducted in 3 flood-prone countries in Asia region.

4. BACKGROUND

Save the Children has launched an Education Safe from Disasters (ESD) strategy, which is a three-year Asia-Pacific regional strategy, aimed at strengthening Save the Children’s approach to Comprehensive School Safety, which aims to defend two fundamental child rights: the right to safety and survival, and the right to education.

The Asia region is the most disaster prone in the world, and children bear the brunt of the impact. According toWorld Disasters Report 2014, floods accounted for 44 per cent of deaths caused by natural hazards worldwide – more than any other natural hazard. By far the worst affected region of the world was Asia and floods were still the biggest cause of death[1]. The scale and frequency of floods in this region has no doubt brought significant impacts on education sector.

Children’s right to education, and policies and priorities for access to a free quality basic education rest on an assumption about children’s ability to attend a target percentage of normative school days in order to progress and benefit from their education. When schools are closed, used for other purposes or inaccessible, and when the school calendar or school attendance are significantly (and repeatedly) disrupted, when exam schedules re inflexible, children fall behind, to fail to achieve their goals, to drop out before finishing school (ADPC, 2008). The consequences of educational inequities are severe for individuals, families, and national welfare. Children who drop out of school face higher rates of poverty, exploitation, and violence. Whilst there is some evidence that coping with adversity is a learning and growth experience, we have a reasonable expectation that equitable access to participate in a high percentage of the normative school hours is fundamental to the right to education.

What we know about the problems:

Flooding disrupts children’s access to education in five primary ways:

  • school closure due to short, medium, or long-term inundation and/or damage.
  • school closure or days or hours shortened, or class size increased to accommodate use of school as temporary shelter.
  • children or teachers not attending due to physical inaccessibility, lack of or cost of transportation, or displacement.
  • psychosocial impacts especially on attention and concentration

The interruption of schooling has significant ripple effects when it comes to community resilience. In disaster recovery planning, schools are widely regarded as critical infrastructure. Rapid resumption of schooling has been recognized as essential to adults being able to focus on clean-up and recovery and resumption of livelihood activities. School disruption has impacts on community, family and individual recovery. Though as yet unmeasured, individual impacts can be expected to include short- and long-term consequences for educational achievement and attainment.

Each country sets a normative number of school days (eg. 180 days, though many are longer). They also seta normative number of school hours per day for the various levels of instruction. The number of hours in the school day can vary considerably (eg. 5.5 hours per day is common, however in many places the day is shorter and in some longer). Whilst the literature contains many measures and factors in educational equity, the underlying metrics are student-teacher contact hours (as set for different instruction levels eg. early childhood programs and kindergarten, early primary, late primary, middle and upper schools), assuming generally stable teacher attendance, and classroom size (number of students per teacher). In places with recurring school disruption due to flooding, the cumulative impact on these two measures of educational equity across a child’s school ‘career’ are neither being measured nor can they even estimated.

In many jurisdictions faced with flood and other hazard impacts, the general policy is indeed to minimize school days and hours lost. In some cases of large scale emergencies schools are officially closed for a very limited number of days for safety, to conduct damage assessment and clean-up, and where equity considerations make this practical. Of necessity, school-based management practices also usually allow for schools to open, close, and adjust as necessary, based on local conditions. Policies regarding making up hours and days with a flexible calendar to reach a target percentage of normative hours may or may not be in place (eg. in North America and Europe often referred to as “rain” “heat” or “snow days”). Strategies for rapid resumption of schooling, minimizing school days lost, making up hours.

In Indonesia in December 2014 and January 2015 heavy rains resulted in extensive urban flooding in areas where drainage systems could accommodate only 1/3 of the daily rainfall. More than 27,000 people in 103 urban villages in North Jakarta were affected. Schools had the authority to decide how long they would be closed, rather than mandating an official re-opening. Some schools continued to operate but with reduced school attendance primarily due to inaccessibility to transportation. The most disadvantaged children were poorer children, and those living in more vulnerable placeswho continued to miss school days because their normal walk to school was unsafe or their public transportation was not available or was now charging unaffordable fares. Students lost between 3 days and 2 weeks of school. In some cases, days were made up, in others they were not. Some schools chose to provide additional lessons and gave more homework as catch up, once they returned to school. Most of the schools in the affected areas did not have any strategies or practices for alternate calendars, or remediation/catch-up for days missed. In the immediate aftermath of the floods, whilst child friendly spaces offered protection for some of the youngest children, but there were no temporary learning centers established nor additional education opportunities made available to the students.(Save the Children, 2015).

In the absence of systematic longitudinal research (eg. across matched cohorts) the impact of school disruption on education is not known. Whilst this research is of some urgency, in the meantime, it would be expeditious to identify what types of policies and practices (at various levels of authority) serve to minimize disruption and maximize educational continuity, and any that may exacerbate the problems.

What we know about solutions:

Schools provide an important context for restoring familiar roles and routines after disasters, and providing a sense of stability, safety and protection in difficult times. Schools are also recognized to be vital to overall community recovery (Fothergill & Peak, 2015). Schools and communities both have adaptive capacities and coping mechanisms to reduce disruption (Mort et. al. 2016. Lassa 2013. Taylor & Peace, 2016). These strengths may be particularly in evidence in places where a high value is placed on education.

The Comprehensive School Safety Framework (GADRRRES, 2015) suggests that we look at both policies and plans of education and disaster management authorities as well as at factors related to: safer school facilities, school disaster management, and risk reduction and resilience education. The various actors (duty-bearers, children, and other stakeholders) can be seen at work at national, sub-national, and school-community levels.

Both government policies that establish and promote equitable access to the normative number of days and hours of education, rapid recovery and remediation as well as local practices and strategies can have a significant impact on outcomes (Lassa, 2013).

In studies in the UK, flood-affected children identified the critical roles that schools should play to support children: flood education across the curriculum and through assemblies (especially emergency preparedness, evacuation routes, family and community planning; clear information about flood early warnings; areas for evacuation; ensuring rapid return to school; and psychosocial support (Morth et. al., 2016).

A range of adaptive practices have been noted in case studies and observations from child-centered organizations. These include:

• pre-positioning of school clean-up kits, and advance plans for clean-up

• distribution and pre-positioning of sandbags

• cleaning of drains (Martin, 2011)

• distribution of tarps for protection of leaky school roofs

• self-learning packages and peer-learning groups for study at home

Children themselves express their satisfaction with being part of the recovery efforts. Similarly, in Indonesia, the practiceof communal work (‘gotong royong’ or ‘kerja bakti’) saw the routine participation of students in school clean-up efforts as they brought their own mops to school (Martin, 2011).Adults have sometimes recognized children’s agency and ability to contribute to community response and recovery (Taylor & Peace, 2015).

Practices in disaster resistant school design and access clearly have a role to play:

• situating buildings in places that are not prone to flooding

• designing buildings in flood-prone areas on elevated plinths, or with water-resistant materials and allowing water to flow under or through

• designing drainage to channel water away from buildings

• designing safe access and transportation routes to school via elevated pathways or waterways

Planning for educational continuity:

Save the Children and other organizations recommend integrating school disaster management into on-going school-based management, and taking advance measures at the school level to mitigate damage and to plan for educational continuity (Save the Children, 2016).

These suggested measures include planning for:

  • alternative locations or temporary learning facilities;
  • flexible calendar
  • alternative modes of instruction (eg. independent study, self-learning kits, and peer learning circles, accelerated make-up instruction, radio, TV, or mobile or computer-based instruction
  • school clean-up;
  • and limited use of schools as temporary shelter.

They include:

  • Preparing elevated shelving and plastic boxes and covering to protect teaching and learning supplies and equipment from damage.
  • Learning about psycho-social support and planning for child protection
  • Learning what information to collect and report for post-disaster damage assessment

5. RATIONALE

In Asia, whilst governments have made investments in disaster risk reduction over the last decade, there are places where the local education system failed to mitigate negative impacts of floods. While deaths and injuries in schools have not been associated with flooding, significant health impacts and missed school days and student-teacher contact hours have been frequently noted. There are also good practices evident when it comes to making schools safe and usable for children in flood situations. When looking at critical factors for education continuity, the study will generate evidence-based documentation focusing on policy and operational enablers and blockers, at national, sub-national, and school levels, especially before, but also during and after floods. This knowledge will be used to advocate and to support efforts of duty-bearers at all levels to invest in and to adopt proactive measures to ensure educational continuity in the face of flooding and other hazards. It will also support Save the Children, partners, development partners, donors, school headmasters and teachers, and other stakeholders, who are making the same efforts to support educational continuity, with new analysis and evidence.

6. AIM, OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Aim: To learn the most effective ways to ensure educational continuity and reduce the loss of school days from the impact of floods and other disasters across Asia.

Objectives:

  • To understand how educational continuity can befacilitated especially in urban flood contexts.
  • To provide guidance to national, sub-national and local education duty-bearers and relevant stakeholders on how to minimize disruption to education in the face of these events

Research questions:

  • What is the existing evidence (in research literature) that educational disruption has negative impacts on education, health and well-being, and that rapid school recovery has an important role to play in community recovery from disaster?
  • How can the impact of floods on equitable access to a free and quality public education in urban areas in Asia be measured?
  • What are the critical factors enabling and blocking educational continuity following floods in urban areas?
  • What policy measures before, during and after floods support educational continuity?
  • What are the practical ways a variety of education stakeholders and school communities can minimize disruptions to education in the event of flood?

7. SCOPE of WORK and DELIVERABLES

Scope of Work:

The Research Proposal will be used to finalize the scope of work, amending the language of this Request for Proposal and incorporating the Research Design as agreed with selected researcher(s).

It is expected that this research will be conducted in 2-3 countries in Southeast and/or South Asia, as will yield best results in understanding the urban flooding context. Some options include Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. Researcher networks and relationships will be considered in identification of appropriate study areas. Comparison to similar urban flooding contexts in a higher-income country will also be considered.

Deliverables:

1. Research-into-Practice Brief for practitioners (2,000 wordsbased on a template to be provided): A bibliography drawn from existing literature review (or which researcher is encouraged to undertake for peer-reviewed publication) should be the foundation for a brief for practitioners, which summarizes research findings with respect to understanding and measuring impacts of disasters (esp. floods) on education, and establishing and implementing policies and procedures to promote educational continuity. This will be used to guide practitioners in crafting, advocating and promoting implementation of policies and practices, and designing programs to build upon and contribute to this evidence base and gaps identified.(Also, optional 2-page version for senior managers and decision makers, and junior staff)

2. Full Research Report (20 pages + appendices) (for technical practitioner audience)

Eg:

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction

Project Background

Purpose

Review of Literature

Research Questions

Research Design and Methods (sample, data collection, data analysis, limitations)

Results

Discussion

Recommendations (must include: research dissemination and utilisation)

References

Appendices:

Research Instruments (survey, focus group discussion questions, etc.)

Summary data

3. Research Summary Report (4-6 pages) (for public stakeholder audience) & translated into the three languages of the study area.

4. Powerpoint presentation of findings for stakeholder workshop

5. Full data set (where applicable).

8. QUALIFICATIONS

Applicants should demonstrate that the primary investigator(s) should have:

  • Masters or Doctoral degree
  • Subject-matter expertise in education sector, and or disaster/disaster management research
  • Proven track record in designing and implementing social science research
  • Firm grasp of ethical/human subjects review considerations
  • Experience in participatory-action research, desirable
  • Commitment to research dissemination and interest in implementation science highly desirable
  • Appropriate cultural and language skills to carry out research in this particular context

In accordance with Save the Children's child safeguarding policies, all team members selected will be requested to submit SC's Working with Children check, and sign SC's Child Safeguarding Policies. Where feasible, Child Safeguarding orientation will be provided.

Where research involves human subjects add the sentence below:

All human subjects researchers will be required to provide certificate of completion of NIH Office of Extramural Research Online Course on Protecting Human Research Participants or similar.

9.APPLICATIONS

Application Deadline for Response to Request for Proposal: [December 16, 2016]

Please respond with:

  • Cover Letterstating interest and qualifications
  • CV(s) of proposed research team members, and/or introduction of institute, company and primary investigators
  • Links to 1 or 2 sample research work products
  • A fully completed bidder response document if you apply as a company, or provide budget breakdown if you apply as an individual
  • Full proposal based on the descriptions of this research

Your proposal should link the proposed research with the work of others and demonstrate familiarity with relevant discourses and approaches. Where possible it should establish a particular theoretical orientation to and guiding model for the topic. It should establish your design and methodological approach, and show that you have thought about the ethical issues and implications.