Dear Potential Offeror/Applicants, Thank you for your interest in USAID/Mozambique’s “USAID IMPROVED LEARNING OUTCOMES IN PRIMARY EDUCATION (USAID SABER)” activity. The purpose of this communication is to obtain industry comment on the attached DRAFT Statement of Objective (SOO). To that end, information obtained through this RFI will be held in confidence and will not be disclosed to the public unless specifically requested by responding sources. This Request for Information (RFI) relates to an activity design with the preliminary title of “USAID SABER”. The purpose of this RFI is to: Obtain details concerning interest in USAID’s anticipated requirements; and Obtain public comments on the Questions to inform the design process. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for planning and information seeking purposes. This RFI is open for comments from any interested US and Non-US Organizations. This is not a solicitation/funding opportunity or a call for proposals/applications. Please do not submit proposals, resumes or promotional materials, as they will be discarded. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.209(c), the following clause is incorporated into this RFI: “FAR 52.215-3 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION OR SOLICITATION FOR PLANNING PURPOSES (OCT 1997) (a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although “proposal” and “offeror” are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. (c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of gathering information and comments to the SOO Draft attached to this document. NOTICE: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. The RFI is solely issued to gather information for planning purposes as an attempt to identify capabilities of potential contractors and to gain feedback on the draft Statement of Objectives (SOO). Therefore, respondents are advised that any information submitted may be used to inform the development of the anticipated Statement of Objectives (SOO). All submissions shall be made by the closing date and time noted on page 1 of this notice. Only submission via email is required; no hard copy delivery will be accepted. E-mail submissions shall be sent to Mr. Jean-Jacques Badiane, at
[email protected] and Ms. Judite Caetano, at
[email protected]. Interested parties shall prepare their submission in English and shall address the information requested below. All submissions must include Section I “Cover Page”, Section II “Comments/Questions” and Section III “Capability Statements” (applicable to U.S. Small Businesses only). Submissions shall use only 8.5 inch by 11-inch paper, single-spaced pages for all narrative documents and each page numbered consecutively. Interested parties must use Times New Roman font 11 or a similar size typeset and should be provided in MS Word or PDF format. I. Cover Page with Business Information (1 page) Organization/firm: name, address, contact information. Point of Contact(s): name, title, phone number, address, e-mail address. Statement of self-certification of business size and socio-economic status of the Organization/firm. II. Comments/Questions (4 Page Limit) Comments and Questions not to exceed four (4) pages will be accepted from all interested parties regarding the Draft Statement of Objectives and possible forthcoming solicitation. This is not a formal solicitation Q&A period; therefore, the government will not be providing responses. All comments and questions will merely serve to inform the government on current market trends and further refine the Statement of Objectives. Comments may include but are not limited to feedback on the Draft Statement of Objectives requirements, recommendations on instrument type (Acquisition or Assistance), anticipated demand in beneficiary geographic areas, NAICS code designation, other market considerations, etc. In order to maximize potential, USAID is seeking to receive feedback on the project approach, including opportunities and potential pitfalls, and individual or institutional perspectives on programs, policies, research, data, activities, and/or development approaches that might be useful for the project design, including past successes and failures, opportunities to leverage existing efforts and resources, gaps that need to be addressed, and sectoral and geographic focus. Please ensure that comments are concise and specific to the information within this RFI. While we welcome any comments you may have, we ask that if you choose to respond, that you answer the following questions to assist USAID: A. Classroom Instruction Improved Some LIC (Lower Income Countries) have limited resources to deliver quality education services, including the roll out of effective bilingual programs. What approaches have proven to be cost effective in improving early grade reading skills in poor learning conditions settings? 2. Teacher absenteeism in Mozambique is among the highest in the region. The 2019 midline EGRA findings indicate that high rates of school director and teacher absenteeism seems to be associated with student absenteeism. In one study, teachers were always on time in class and were present throughout the class, but student tardiness hampered lesson plan implementation. Delays of 30–40 minutes were frequent. In addition, between 10 percent and 46 percent of enrolled students did not attend classes on the day an assessment was conducted. These absences will require remediation activities later, with consequences for lesson plan compliance. How can teacher and school director absenteeism rates be minimized? What remediation activities do you recommend that show positive results where students are able to make up the number of days they missed in school? 3.A 2019 Assessment concluded that “teachers have some knowledge of gender and inclusion issues and have been given general guidelines to promote them. However, these guidelines focus on promoting equal class participation of boys and girls and distributing students appropriately throughout the classroom.” The evaluation found that aspects of gender equality are not addressed and that teachers have limited ability to put gender equality and inclusion processes into practice. The low proportion of female teachers also counteracts efforts toward gender equality. How can bilingual education training and monitoring pay attention to operationalizing gender approaches (what to do and how to do it)? B. Student Learning Outcomes Improved In our context children do not get to see scripts of their first language until the first day they go to school. How can interventions be best structured to ensure that children can learn to read in their own language making the best use of the knowledge they bring from home? 2.The 2019 midline EGRA report revealed that a majority of the variance in student scores is explained by factors outside of school-providing clear indication that programming needs to consider home/community interventions that may support student reading skill development and supplement teacher instruction in the classroom. What suggestions do you have for providing support to homes/communities and parents on how to engage in reading related activities at home? C. Teacher Professional Development Strengthened The 2019 EGRA data indicates that teachers need help reading in the L1 spoken by students. The mean Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) data for teachers in all 3 languages is extremely low for adult readers. Teacher ORF in reading grade 3 text in national languages ranged between 40 and 50 words per minute (wpm) (90 wpm is a good score) and indicates that their own reading skills are too poor to be able to teach reading well to their students. Teacher training and language differences may inhibit supervisors/coaches from providing support to teachers. What innovative approaches can provide continued support and coaching to teachers in a cost-effective way? 2. Many teachers are teaching in multi grade classrooms where they must teach students of different ages, grades, and abilities in the same group. What bilingual pedagogical approaches and materials are necessary to handle this classroom situation? 3. A large number of teachers do not speak the L1 of students. The 2019 EGRA student results were so low that it concluded that “having a teacher that is not a native L1 speaker is not a major factor.” The fact that there is a linguistic mismatch impact on student achievement. What innovative approaches and teacher incentives can be done to help students learn to read and write? The page limitation includes any attachments. The Government will not review any information, including attachments, more than the five (5) pages, unless otherwise stated in this section. We look forward to your responses to this Request for Information. Sincerely,