Protestant University of Rwanda

P.O. Box 619 Huye/Butare/RWANDA

Tél. : +250788310811

Email : vice.chancellor@pur.ac.rw, info@pur.ac.rw, emmafique@gmail.com 

Site web: www.pur.ac.rw

CALL FOR APPLICATION TO CONDUCT AN EXTERNAL EVALUATION: TERMS OF REFERENCE

Project No: A-AFM-2021-0380: “Resilience of Educational Institutions through Digitalization – A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region, Pilot Phase”

Project duration: December 01, 2021 to May 31, 2025

Project Implemented under the Financial Support of Bread for the World

January 2025

Overview of the terms of Reference

The terms of reference concern the call for application to conduct an external evaluation of the project Project No: A-AFM-2021-0380 “Resilience of Educational Institutions through Digitalization – A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region, Pilot Phase”. It starts with an overview of the profile of leading institution and the project (1), motivation and mission of an external evaluation (2), key questions for the concerned evaluation (3), methodology (4), process of evaluation (5), deliverables (6), profile of the consultants (7), content and conditions of application (8), others information related to this call (9), process of selection of consultants (10), contact addresses (11) and date of submission of application (12).

1. Introduction

In the introductory part, we provide the overview of the leading institution as well as the overview of the project.

• Brief presentation of PUR

The Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR) is an officially accredited higher education institution located in Huye District, Southern Province and Karongi District, Western Province of Rwanda. It was founded by the Protestant churches of Rwanda in 2009 following the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Butare (FTPB) created in 1991.Through this university, Protestant churches would like to contribute to the national and international socio-economic transformation through quality education that equips graduates with the necessary knowledge and skills to deal effectively with the socio-economic development in a dynamic and pluralistic world.

 PUR wants to be a reference university, fostering knowledge development and research that is relevant for society and inspired by Christian ethics and values. Accordingly, its mission is to provide Society and Churches with well-trained personnel who are inquisitive, solution-oriented, committed, and equipped with knowledge and skills that enable them to meet the specific needs of societies that are moving to a global and pluralistic world.

PUR seeks to achieve the following objectives:

• To develop practical and applicable knowledge in arts, social sciences and technology
• To impart high-quality teaching enabling the creation of employment that proves relevant to communities is close to reality and helpful for society.
• To contribute to the positive transformation of society through teaching, research, consultancy, and various projects.
• To contribute to local and national sustainable development by promoting scientific and technological research towards integrated development

To achieve these objectives, PUR has initiated and nurtured impactful partnerships with different organizations around the world to ensure the continuous improvement of quality education that meets the expectations of Rwandans and the international community at large.

In the interests of synergy of action, the 5 organizations mentioned below have resolved to work together in the framework of the project “Resilience of Educational Institutions through Digitalisation-A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region, Pilot phase”. The main goal of this project in order to contribute to the quality of the digitalization of education in the Great Lakes Region (Rwanda and the two provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) North Kivu and South Kivu).

This project is part of the mission of the Protestant Churches of the sub-region, which consists in contributing to the improvement of the quality of education including but not limited to establishment and management of schools and universities as well as in-service training of different educational stakeholders.

The project is financed by Bread for the World (Germany) and is being implemented for a period of three years and half, from December 1, 2021 to May 31, 2025

The project is jointly implemented five partner organizations in Great Lakes Region. They include:

• Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR) which is the lead organization of the project,
• Université Libre des Pays des Grands-Lacs (ULPGL), DRC (North Kivu),
• Communauté Baptiste au Centre de l’Afrique (CBCA), DRC (North Kivu),
• Conseil Protestant du Rwanda (CPR) Via Bureau National de l’Enseignement Protestant (BNEP)
• Eglise du Christ en RD Congo Sud Kivu (ECC/SK), DRC (South Kivu)

The external evaluation of ReDiCo is planned in order to appreciate its design, implementation, achievement of its objectives as well as impact.

• Brief presentation of the project

The project A-AFM-2021-0380 entitled “Resilience of Educational Institutions through Digitalization – A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region, Pilot Phase” is transnational project implemented in Rwanda and DRC South and North Kivu. This project was initiated to contribute to educational quality improvement at different levels: Nursery, primary, secondary and university in Great Lakes Region via quality digital education.

In this part, the context (1.2.1) and the problem statement (1.2.2) of the project are synoptically described. Moreover, general and specific objectives with corresponding indicators (1.2.3) as well as beneficiaries of the project are outlined (1.2.4). More than that, stakeholders in this project are summarily explained (1.2.5).

• Context

Since the end of 20^th century, digitalization has been immersing different spheres of human life. Accordingly, there have been a plethora of initiatives-materials and non-materials to digitalise services. As far as education is concerned, there have been different initiatives to equip students with necessary digital skills in order to cope with changes as well as usefully serve in the dynamically digitalizing world. Political decisions have been made at international, regional and national levels. A plurality of framework like digital competences were developed. Despite the awareness and development, the pandemic of Covid-19 exacerbated the dynamicity of digitalization of services including education. In the context of Great Lakes Region, there seems to be a political will to not only digitize educational services but also equip students at different levels of education with needed skills. For instance, in both DRC and Rwanda, digitalization is reflected in educational policies and school as well as university curricula. Unfortunately, there are different challenges which need special attention.

• Problem

The focus of this project “Resilience of schools through Digitalization – A reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region is to contribute to addressing the major problem of low quality of education in Great Lakes region in the context of COVID 19. Additionally, the existing problem of social injustice as engineered by inequality access to quality education by the most vulnerable children has been worsened by covid-19. Since March 2020 like other parts of the world, schools in Rwanda and East DRC were closed. Digital media including radio, televisions and social media were opted for teaching and learning as means of containment of the pandemic. However, the quality of education in the context of COVID 19 in Great Lakes Region has been hampered by several causes, the most important of which are: limited digital pedagogical and didactical competences by teachers, limited access and familiarity of students to digital teaching and learning and weak collaboration between educational institutions in the region.

(a) Limited digital pedagogical and didactical competences by teachers

Teachers’ digital competences are limited among teachers in target schools and universities reflecting the general challenge in two countries. Primo, ICT is integrated in pre-service teacher training mainly as content not merely as a tool for teaching and learning (MINEDUC/REB, 2019, PIASS, 2013). Secundo, in-service teacher training of ICT as media of instruction has not been a major focus as offline modes of teaching were only given priority. Therefore, it is a challenge for teachers to facilitate teaching and learning process in digital mode. The problem of limited digital competences among teachers is exacerbated by limited ICT infrastructure and equipment in schools especially in rural areas.

(b) Limited access and familiarity of students to digital teaching and learning

We observe limited skills of students in ICT due to multiple causes. Though some students especially in secondary and higher education may have basic skills in using social media via computers or telephones, their experiences of using them as tools for learning are so limited. One may be mistaken if parents are not associated. Such change of paradigm (offline to online) for is still a challenge for parents. The latter do not have skills as far as supporting their children learn through digital media is concerned. Furthermore, church leaders as important stakeholders in education both Rwanda and DRC, they cannot be left behind. However, their support in regard to learning via digital media is not reliable.

In addition, the unexpected use of online teaching methods in the context of COVID 19 has increased the inequality of children in terms of access to quality learning especially for children from remote areas and vulnerable socio-economic situation. This has incurred a number of consequences likely to compromise the social and professional integration of children in the future, particularly for girls. For example, the rates of early pregnancies and marriages have increased during lockdown[1].

Indeed, access to digital media i.e., radio, television internet as well as basic infrastructure is very limited especially for children from remote areas.

(c) Weak collaboration between educational institutions in the region

Partnership is an engine for education quality improvement (Hattie, 2016). Targeted institutions have long experiences in collaboration. For example, PIASS and ULPGL collaborate in running the International Master’s Program “Educational Quality in Developing Countries” since 2013 as well as through RUPA (Réseau Des Universités Protestantes D'afrique). Moreover, CP/ECP, BNEP and CP/CBCA collaborate in a tripartite project about promotion of peace education and protestant values since 2017. So far, there is not explicit collaboration in regard to teaching and learning where teachers and students share experiences so as to improve the quality of teaching. In the context of COVID 19, we missed exchanges between our schools and universities with a view to valuing each other's experiences. This weak collaboration should also be mentioned between our schools and universities with other educational institutions in each country and in the sub-region, while there are those who have good experiences with COVID 19 that can be exploited by our schools and universities.

• Objectives and indicators

1. Overall objective
   • The project contributes to improving the quality of digital education in Rwanda and DR Congo
2. Specific objectives and indicators
   • They have been defined to guide the implementation of the project to achieve the overall objective. Project objectives as well as related indicators are defined in the following table:

Table 1 : Objectives and indicators

• Beneficiaries

Table 2: Beneficiaries of the project by each partner institution

The following table gives an overview of the target groups of this project per partner.

The target groups are of Rwandan and Congolese nationality. They are pupils, students, teachers of Protestant schools and universities, leaders of Protestant schools and universities, parents of pupils and students, church/parish leaders, community leaders, researchers and partners. in education who come from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The target groups mentioned above come from structured and organized Protestant schools and universities. Schools, teachers, parents of students will be selected according to previously defined criteria.

• Geographical areas of the project

This project is implemented by 5 protestant institutions in the Great Lakes region. 

In Rwanda :

• Le conseil Protestant du Rwanda via le Bureau National de l’enseignement Protestant (BNEP)- In 6 schools, specifically 2-2-2 nursary, primary et secondary plus two parishes (See annex 1 for more details on the schools and parishes).
• Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR), Huye and Karongi campuses.

In the RD Congo :

• Université Libre des pays des Grands lacs (ULPGL)-Goma

• Communauté Baptiste au Centre de l'Afrique (CBCA) through the Coordination Office for Protestant Conventioned Schools (ECP) in North Kivu - In 6 schools, including 2-2-2 nursery, primary and secondary schools respectively, and two parishes (See Appendix 1 for details of these schools and parishes).
• Eglise du Christ en RD Congo Sud Kivu (ECC/SK) through its Provincial Coordination Office for Protestant Conventioned Schools (CP-ECP) in South Kivu - In 6 schools including 2-2-2 nursery, primary and secondary schools respectively and two parishes (See appendix 1 for details of these schools and parishes)

3 ReDiCo external evaluation: Purpose

Digitalisation of and in education is a topic and a process under rapid development at different levels of education. There are divergent perspectives among stakeholders. Moreover, scientific results are somehow ambivalent (UNESCO, 2023). For instance, the equipment and integration of digital technology in teaching shows both positive and negative results in terms of students’ achievements (op. cit). Consequently, the pilot phase of the project regarding the digitalization of education “Resilience of educational institutions through Digitalization – A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region Phase 1)” requires an external evaluation. Therefore, this external evaluation, in addition to being a requirement in this specific project, will shed light on lessons learnt during the implementation of this innovative project. Consequently, the ultimate purpose is assess the implementation of the project, achievement of objectives in light of related indicators in order to draw lessons likely to enlighten implementation of development projects in general with particular emphasis on education projects in the domain of digitalisation.

3 Focus of the evaluation: Key questions

The key questions for this evaluation is whether the objectives have been achieved in terms of the defined indicators and related activities which have been carried out during implementation as well as the impact of the project

In addition to this key aspect, the following other elements in line with OECD-DAC principles of project evaluation. They mainly include :

1. Relevance (pertinence)

• Are we doing the right thing? Does the project meet the needs of the project beneficiaries?
• Development policy reference: Have national and/or local education strategies or policies in relation to nursery, primary, secondary education and university been duly taken into account in project planning especially in relation to digitalisation of education? Has the complementarity or reinforcement of other projects in the same field been examined?
• References for the target group: Does the project address a relevant issue for the target population (teachers, pupils, headteachers, parents)?
• Participative Planning: Have key stakeholders been involved in project planning?
• Rights and ethical guidelines: Are gender aspects taken into account in the planning and implementation of the project?

2. Coherence

• External coherence: This is measured in relation to the relevance of the project: Does the project effectively meet needs of the target groups (Rwanda and DRC)? How many other partners are involved? Do the actions of these partners complement or compete with each other? How is the project coherent with interventions by other partners in Great Lake region in the field of digitalization of education?
• Internal coherence: Is the project in line with the vision and missions of the partner institutions? Are the organisational values of the partner institutions consistent with their mode of internal governance? How is the project coherent with other existing initiatives and projects of partner institutions?

3. Effectiveness (efficacité)

This dimension seeks to answer the following the question: Have the project objectives been achieved, and to what extent?

• Traceability and logic of results, effects and changes: Are the planned indicators on track to be achieved according to the planning and implementation of the project, and at what level? Is there a link between the activities and the project objectives? Do the activities seem appropriate for achieving the project objectives?
• Measurability and feasibility: Are there baseline values for the indicators to be measured? What measuring instruments has the project chosen to collect monitoring data? What are the target values achieved by the project in relation to the initial values?
• Effects: What are direct and indirect effects of the project?

4. Efficiency (efficience)

Are the project objectives being achieved cost-effectively? Are the resources (human, material, financial, temporal…) used proportionate to the services planned and the changes expected? (For example, is the budget well thought out, are the finances realistically planned, is the number of activities budgeted appropriately) How were approaches used efficient? How were they important for partner institutions? How did the knowledge generated by the project implementation managed and how has it been beneficial to the institutional learning?

5. Effect (impact)

What changes (intentional and non-intentional, positive and negative) have been brought about by the implementation of project activities? What other intentional and unintentional changes, if any, should be reported?How did, for example, the project contribute to the national policies of digitalization of education in Great Lakes Region?

6. Viability (Durability, sustainability)

To what extent will the positive effects of the project continue even after the project is over? What measures has the project taken to ensure the sustainability of its effects? How are beneficiaries/ partner institutions competent to transfer acquired knowledge and competences in other interventions as sustainable strategy? How can existing Networks make use of the achievements of this project?

7. Cross-cutting issues

The evaluators are also advised not to neglect cross-cutting issues like gender, protection of the environement and peace during the evaluation.

Questions including but not limited to need to be answered

• Has the project taken account of cross-cutting themes such as gender, peace and the environment?
• To what extent has the project contributed to the promotion of gender, peace and environmental management?

5. Methodology external of evaluation

This evaluation will be carried out using participatory approaches.

However, the evaluators will propose the detailed methodology in the technical bid.

The selected evaluators will establish in detail the ‘main evaluation questions’ at the very beginning of the assignment and will work closely with the project coordinator and partner institutional focal persons.

The evaluation mission will be carried out in a participatory manner with regard to the collection of data in relation to the status of project objectives and indicators of the project.

The evaluation could include both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods in order to provide information on the project indicators

Several stakeholders will be directly or indirectly involved, including the organisations responsible for the project implementation (mentioned before), the financial partner, the beneficiaries (teacher trainers, teachers, students, parents, church and community leaders, etc.) and other people and institutions that have directly or indirectly benefited from the results of the project.

A number of documents will be made available to the evaluators, including the project (application for support, planning documents/timetable of activities, activity reports and annual reports, etc.), the project budget.

Data collection methods may also include:

• Documentary analysis of project reference documents (project document, narrative reports, monitoring reports, training reports, etc.)
• Interviews with project staff
• Focus group discussions with target groups (teachers trainers, teachers, students, parents, church and community leaders, etc)
• Individual interviews (beneficiaries and stakeholders)
• Questionnaires with (teacher trainers, teachers, students, parents, church and community leaders, etc).

5. Steps of the external evaluation / calendar

The evaluation will take 30 days. This period only covers data collection, document analysis and various interviews. The final report should be submitted 20^th April 2025 latest. Details of the steps and calendar will be provided in the inception report.

6. Deliverables

It is expected that the consultant will deliver the following:

6.1. Initial report

Selected evaluators should submit an incpetion report which should be validated by PUR in collaboration with financial partner BftW.

The inception report should include in particular:

• Introduction: description of the project and purpose of evaluation
• Framework of evaluation: Approches, detailled methodology, evaluation matrix,
• Plan of the evaluation,
• Logistics,
• Risks and mitigation measures,
• Appendices which would include tools for data collection and analysis,

The initial report should not go beyond 15 pages maximum.

6.2 Debriefing report

This is an intermediary report presented directly after the data collection. The debriefing report consists of short presentation of the principal insights from the collected data. This would be followed by exchanges and discusions of results with PUR.

6.3 Plan report writing

This should include the different parts of the evaluation report i.e., chapters and sub-chapters which should serve as basis for writing the evaluation report. This is always tentative and can be modified at any time during the writing process.

6.2 Draft report

At the end of the evaluation, a detailed draft report will be submitted to PUR and its financial partner ‘BftW’ (in an electronic version in Word format). A presentation of the report to PUR is also planned in order to complete and/or validate the results. This should take into consideration the observations made during the debriefing. This report will be read and commented by PUR and financial partner. This should be taken into consideration during the writing of the final report of the evaluation.

6.3 Final report

The final report must incorporate the comments made on the preliminary/draft report. The electronic version in English with an executive summary translated in French will be sent in pdf format in Arial 11, 1,15 spacing.

The final report will include:

• A cover page: Indicating the major information about the project i.e., title, project number, responsible organisation (PUR), names of evaluators, date of the report, Region/ Country, form of the report i.e., final report,
• Table of contents and list of acronyms and abbreviations where applicable,
• Executive summary (max 3 pages) which summarizes the synoptic context of the project, methodology, results, conclusions, lessons learnt and recommendations,
• Introduction which mentions the objectives of the external evaluation, purpose and criteria of evaluation, context and synoptic description of the project (Max 3 pages),
• Methodology described in less than three pages,
• Major results of the evaluation: This includes the critical appreciation and constructive of the project in light of the previous indicated criteria as well as cross-cutting issues (25 pages maximum),
• Lessons learnt, conclusions and recommendations to be shortened on 5 pages maximum,
• Appendices (numbered): This can include the list of participants in the evaluation (i.e., interviewees), timetable of evaluation activities, map of the project target area, tools for data collection as well as other documents judged necessary to be presented.

The final report should be submitted to ReDiCo leading institution and should be validated by financial partner, BftW.

The report should not exceed 50 pages, excluding appendices.

7. Profile of evaluators

The task of the evaluators will be to carry out an external evaluation of the project “Resilience of educational institutions through Digitalization – A Reaction to COVID-19 (ReDiCo) in Great Lakes Region Phase)” (A-AFM-2021-0380), with financial support Bread for the World (BftW). The external evaluation will focus on the project indicators in order to justify the achievement project objectives. Moreover, the external evaluation will provide the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainable impact, coherence, sustainability and other cross-cutting issues i.e., gender, environmental protection.

The evaluators should meet the following criteria:

• Be independent evaluators,
• Be individuals or a company with proven expertise (at least 5 years) in project evaluation, particularly digitalisation of education related projects.
• Have a university degree in social sciences or other related disciplines especially in education, ICT in education, ICT, (minimum Master's level/ + 5 years),
• Have experience and expertise in conducting both qualitative and quantitative evaluations,
• Provide evidence of your expertise on the digitalisation of and in education at different levels and areas of education,
• Be familiar with the education systems of Rwanda and DRC as well as church educational work in both countries
• Knowledge of quality education in post-genocide and emergency contexts,
• Perfect knowledge of spoken and written English and French; knowledge of a local language spoken in the area is an advantage

8. Content of the offer/ Composition of the file

• Technical offer
  • Signed motivation letter addressed to the Vice Chancellor of PUR,
  • A technical note (3 pages maximum) indicating the general understanding of the purpose and terms of reference
  • A synoptic but precise description of the methodology for the xeternal evaluation of ReDiCo project. This should include methods and techniques of data collection and analysis, different steps to carry out the external evaluation as well as the evaluation matrix to be used during the external evaluation of ReDiCo,
  • A proposal of the timetable of external evaluation related activities.
  • Updated curriculum vitae: signed and indicating competences, experiences of evaluators,
  • Three certificates of completed evaluations of projects in the field of education,
  • Certified copies of education degrees
• Financial offer
  • A financial signed proposal indicated unit price for each item in FRW including honoraries as well as other fees related to the same external evaluation i.e., all ancillary costs incurred: transport, accommodation, communication, etc.
  • Updated administrative documents in relation to payment of taxes.

Given the limited budget available to this activity, there will be a discussion with the selected evaluators to find a consensus on the final methodology and the timetable for carrying out the assignment, as well as on the cost of the contract. The remuneration, as well as the other commitments of each party will be specified in the contract.

9. Other informatons

• Competent individuals or companies are allowed to submit their applications
• Only one application shall be submitted by one individual or company
• Being available during the period of the project external evaluation is of paramount importance
• Subcontracting is not allowed in this call.

10. Selection process

• Submissions will be assessed on the basis of the quality of technical offer. Accordingly, it will be justified by the experience, expertise, sound and relevant methodology,
• In case two submissions have the same quality, the less expensive will be considered,
• A financial offer not far from the existing budget with the best quality of technical offer will be considered,
• Only one successful company or two evaluators will be contacted for contract to carry this external evaluation
• A contract will be signed between PUR and selected company or two evaluators,
• After the signature of the contract between two parties, the discussion of the practicalities of the mission of the external evaluation will be done.

11. Contact for further information

For more information on the assignment, please contact Dr. Emmanuel Niyibizi (emmafique@gmail.com / eniyibizi@piass.ac.rw,coordinator (tel +250788736626) and Dr. Prosper Nkurunziza, prospernkuru@gmail.com, in Charge of Monitoring and Evaluation in the project « ReDiCo ». Tel : +250788736626

12. Dates and modalities of submission

The offers will be sent to the following address: vice.chancellor@pur.ac.rw not later than 15th, February, 2025 (midnight Rwandan time).

Done at Huye, February 5th, 2025

Prof. Olu Ojedokun

Vice Chancellor of PUR

Annex 1

List of schools, universities and parishes targeted by the project per region

In Rwanda

1. CPR-BNEP

2. Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR)

In DRC

1. List of schools and parishes in CBCA

2. List of schools and parishes in CP-ECP/SK in DRC

3. Université Libre des Grands Lacs (ULPGL)

[1] https://igihe.com/amakuru/u-rwanda/article/rwamagana-guma-mu-rugo-yasize-abangavu-150-batewe-inda

[2] Divers refers to the gender identity of people who do not identify themselves as either male or female. The category divers

recognizes other gender identities such as transgender or intersexual identities.

[3] Direct target groups are the addressees of the project activities who:

1. during the project duration will benefit directly from the work of the project (direct beneficiaries)
2. as intermediaries and/or decision-makers take action towards the achievement of the project objectives.

[4] Experimentation phase

[5] Experimentation phase

[6] These are for activity 2.2.1

[7] For activities 2.2.1 and 2.2.2

[8] This number includes parents to be included for activities 2.2.1 (30), and 3.1.1 (42)

[9] This number includes church leaders to be included for activities 2.2.1, 2.2.2, and 3.1.1

[10] For activity 3.1.1

[11] For activity 2.2.1

[12]Indirect target groups are persons or groups who may benefit from the outcomes of the project (indirect beneficiaries) or should be influenced without being direct addressees of the project activities.