REFORM SUPPORT UNIT. TERMS OF REFERENCE Hiring of independent firm for data collection & data entry Farah Syed

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1 REFORM SUPPORT UNIT TERMS OF REFERENCE Hiring of independent firm for data collection & data entry Farah Syed 2015

2 Terms of Reference Annual School Census Data Collection, Entry, Cleaning and Management Solutions/Service provider Background: The Reform Support Unit (RSU) is an entity of the Education Department established to implement the Sindh Education Reform Program (SERP). RSU has successfully implemented the SERP-I and now the implementation of SERP II is in its third year of implementation. The institutional structure of RSU comprises of three wings; 1-Policy wing; 2-Monitoring and Evaluation wing; and 3- Sindh Education Management Information System (SEMIS) wing. The RSU is also implementing many sub programs i.e. The School Rehabilitation Program, The School Management Committees, School Specific Budgets, Teachers Recruitment and Management (including training), School Consolidation, Girls Stipend Program, Free textbook delivery etc. The Sindh-EMIS is a structured, scheduled and managed system for collecting, processing and retrieving information about the three main components of a school: School profile, Student Enrollment and Staff information. It also generates all the statistical data reports and queries. The core objective of SEMIS is to conduct Annual School Census and accurately produce educational statistics of Sindh province for effective planning and policy development. Annual School census data is collected through an approved questionnaire and covers the following main indicators 1) class and gender wise enrollment, 2) school status, 3) infrastructure details (number of class rooms, total rooms, basic facilities), 4) teachers details, 5) school incentive details i.e. SMC, funds, textbook provision etc. The SEMIS wing is responsible to develop the scope, methodology of data collection, validation, cleaning, merging, analysis processes to get reliable and authenticate data. SEMIS is also responsible for training of data collectors & reporting of ASC data. ASC data is mainly used for education sector planning, budgeting and target setting. Education Literacy department has signed a Sindh Education Sector Project with World Bank, and Annual School Census, is one of the Disbursement Linked Indicator. ASC has three components and one of the components is to collect ASC data through an independent firm to verify and authenticate the ASC data already collected through Government administrative machinery. In this regard RSU is interested to hire the services of independent organization(s) / firms(s) that has expertise in large scale data collection through, paper based questioners and online data collection through web & mobile application (live data collection from field). These terms of reference provide general information on Annual School Census activities. The specific tasks, data collection methodology, strategy and detail plan will be discussed and finalized with the contracted firm. The firm is expected to comply with the agreed protocols of all activities. Any deviation from these and unsatisfactory output may lead to cancellation of the project. pg. 2

3 Objective: The primary aim of this assignment is to administer school level census in all the districts of Sindh through paper based questionnaire for schools up-to elementary level, through an online web based application (already developed by SEMIS) from high and higher secondary schools and live data collection (one pager form) using mobile application in all districts and all schools. The contracted firm(s) will be expected to collect school level data (using agreed questionnaire) across Sindh along with documentary evidence (photocopies of teacher attendance, student attendance etc. and pictures) and produce more than 100 static and web based dynamic statistical reports. The details of districts distributed in three separate packages are given below: Package Division DISTRICT Total Schools Badin 3052 Package 1 Package 2 Package 3 Hyderabad Karachi Larkana Sukkur Mirpurkhas Dadu 2105 Hyderabad 879 Jamshoro 787 Mitiari 926 Sujawal 1643 Tando Allah Yar 831 Tando Muhammad Khan 1017 Thatta 1515 Central Karachi 617 East Karachi 300 Korangi Karachi 610 Malir Karachi 637 South Karachi 547 West Karachi 386 Total Schools In Package Jacobabad 1440 Kambar-Shahdadkot 1631 Kashmore 1495 Larkana 1168 Shikarpur 1300 Ghotki 1960 Khairpur Mirs 3460 SUKKUR 1251 Total Schools In Package Mirpur Khas 2166 Tharparkar 4008 Umerkot 2226 SBA Sanghar 3124 pg. 3

4 Naushero Feroze 2332 Shaheed Benazirabad 2626 Total Schools In Package Total Schools Scope of services: The key tasks of the firm/agency/organization will be: 1. Printing of Questionnaires/tools/Formats/Checklist/instruction sheets and development of mobile based one pager: a. The firm(s) will use printed-paper questionnaires in appropriate colors /instruction sheets (approved standard by RSU) rather than photocopies; b. The firm(s) will print /emboss the SEMIS code, School name and location on every ASC form for specific schools; c. The firm(s) will develop the one pager mobile based application form and a mechanism to enter into an online database, accessible through internet connectivity and connectable through web based mechanism; 2. Activity Plan: a. The firm(s) will develop and submit a detailed action plan for UC Based data collection, and get it approved from SEMIS team; b. The firm(s) will develop and submit a detail schedule for school level data collection and mobile based collection. The data collection wil be monitored using services of ILMI by sending key indicators SMS text, in a given format, sent to c. The firm(s) will prepare schedule for training of data collectors and monitoring plans for the field monitoring of the enumerators d. The firm(s) will develop and submit complete plan for commencing of activity including timeline for the submission of inception report, data collection, cleaning, merging, reports preparation and deliverables. 3. Hiring of Field & Technical Staff : The firm(s) will recruit data entry operators, data collectors, field supervisors/ monitors, mobile app developers & other technical staff, etc. as per project requirements based on best practices, in consultation with SEMIS & standard shared by ASC team. 4. Pilot Testing of Mobile Application The firm should carry out testing of Mobile Application Developed by the office of Secretary Education and provide testing report based on real data collected in the pilot test before implementation. 5. Capacity building Workshops: The firm will develop instruction sheets/ manuals for filling paper based and online data collection process, and carryout training workshops for the enumerators for data collection through paper based questionnaire and separate workshops for HMs/technical resource of High and high secondary schools of Sindh for online data entry such schools. Organize workshop for mobile application, with the consultation of SEMIS. Federal Census will be contacted for enumerator exercise. pg. 4

5 pg Data Collection : Collection of the ASC data through paper based and online data collection tools through mobile based application (for mentioned key indicators) from Schools: a. The firm is responsible for ensuring timely data collection of all public schools as per reference date -31st October, 2015 with agreed protocols and procedures. b.the enumerator will send a text message to TEXT ILMI 8398 when he reaches the school for collecting the data Key Features of the SMS will be: i. School SEMIS Code ii. Viable / Non-Viable iii. Student Enrolment iv. Number of Teachers v. Boundary Wall vi. Electricity vii. Washrooms (Functional / Non-Functional) c. The Firm is responsible to ensure the first hand data collection & bring the supporting documents. d.in case of closed school, the firm will collect evidences in the form of interviews of the community (respondent) to confirm if the schools is 1) closed on that particular day 2) closed for more than a week and record the number of weeks/months indicated by the respondent 3) permanently closed (closed for more than a year). The data collector should take pictures of the school with time indicated on the photograph to ensure the school was visited during the school working time and not after school hours. If respondent is willing the data collector should collect contact information (Name, CNIC and Mobile Number) for re confirmation. e. The firm, apart from collecting data, will also collect the evidences of verifiable data i.e. i.photocopy of Teachers & SMC Chairman CNICs, (If photo copy not available then a clear picture in a mobile may be taken showing CNIC Number and Name) ii.student and Teacher attendance register as per reference date, iii.school opening Notification, If School is without SEMIS code iv.school Consolidation Notification. v.school Up gradation Notification f. The firm will verify and assure quality and accuracy of information and also assess accuracy for inconsistent or illogical answers. (Inserting the Prefix, Gender,Level against the actual data). g.the firm will calculate the area of the school through GPS device by estimating the coordinates of all four corners of the school. h.the firm will make sure the forms are completed in all aspect with sign & stamp of respondent, HM/ HT & SMC Chairman i. The online data through mobile application will be collected & uploaded/sent on same day [All schools data should be entered/ uploaded on the same day otherwise progress of the day will not be entertained]

6 j. The firm will also submit raw data to RSU-SEMIS and World Bank on a regular basis during data collection and the entire set at the conclusion of data collection and cleaning exercise. 7. Data Entry: a. Data will be entered on the web based application provided by RSU-SEMIS b. Two separate teams with independent supervision will be assigned by the firm for double data entry 8. Data Cleaning & Merging: a. The firm will follow and apply the best processes of cleaning (as per International Standards) and refining of data to minimize the data errors issues and gaps b. Data cleaning checks would be implemented from the very beginning till the end of the process i.e. collection, entry and Merging etc. c. The application will have basic checks, including but not limited to, duplicate SEMIS code, etc. d. Collected, cleaned, and finalized raw data will be submitted to SEMIS team and World Bank Team. The data will be submitted in clearly defined batches (district level). Data will not be submitted and revised on a streaming basis. e. The data will not be treated as final unless acceptance certificate is issued by RSU 9. Data Quality The data quality (to be determined using field based monitoring by SEMIS of 10% schools must be 80% or above other wise 30% payment will be deducted.(key Indicators will be monitored e.g. Students Enrolment, No. of Teaching Staff, No.of rooms and class rooms and availability of basic facilities). 10. Supporting documents/materials from RSU: At different stages following will be provided by the RSU to the firm: i. List of schools; ii. List of merged and campus schools (R1, 2 and 3) iii. The ASC questionnaire. iv. The ASC instructions sheet v. The ASC Database Structure vi. Developed online web application vii. Runtime and post data checking/inconsistency checks viii. Templates of basic reports ix. Contact List of District Education Officers (DEOs) & District Officer SEMIS and planning. x. Formats of dynamic reports xi. Other necessary information 11. Composition and Qualification of the Team a. The firm should be a registered agency/organization operating under regulations of Government of Pakistan. pg. 6

7 b.the firm/agency should be financially sound having good reputation with sound track record of successful implementation of assignments with the government or private partners. c. Demonstrated experience in organizing surveys on the scale of this project over the past seven (07 years) d.firm should be in existence for at least five years and must be in the business of secure (mainly authentication, encryption, and integrity etc.) web & mobile based software design, development, installation and deployment of the software products during the said, period. e. The firm must have successfully designed, developed, and installed at least two Secure (Authentication, Encryption, and Integrity) on-line data collection and processing related software or secure web /mobile based software. f. Firm must have successfully designed, developed, installed and commissioned such secure web based software in any organization. g.the Firm must be capable of providing enough manpower, financial resources and equipment to perform the entire scope of work mentioned herein. h.the firm should be familiar with the functioning of the public schools and overall education system of the Sindh/Pakistan i. The criteria of selection of the firm shall include: j. Experience of the firm with details of the relevant projects (particularly in education and social services) k.strength of Financial Statement l. CVs with Qualification of relevant staff.(the firm higher management, administrative staff for the ASC and the all the enumerators, field supervisors, software engineer/architect, application developer, system analyst ) m. Reliability and applicability of the proposal. i. Firm will not involve any Govt. officials (especially Teachers, SPEs and TEOs) in data collection exercise without prior permission from RSU-SEMIS. ii. Firm will ensure that all data collectors must put a visiting note in school at the time of visit. 12. Man Hours Required Key Expert Key Expert Number of Experts Hours required Total Hours Comments Project Manager Entire period of four months Field Monitoring Expert Two months of data collection Planning and Development Expert One months for planning PHP Programmer Performed Required changes in existing SEMIS RSU Software (Deputed at RSU) Statistical Analyst Making Analytical reports District Supervisor Each Districts for Two Months Field Activity Monitors Each Districts pg. 7

8 Data Entry Supervisors Each Districts Non Key Expert Number Hours Total Key Expert of Experts required Hours Comments Enumerators 1 4 Each schools Data Entry Operators Each Form 13. Time Period and level of effort 1. The data collection exercise will be conducted immediately after the contract signing. 2. Duration of assignment is four months (120 days including holidays), up to and including submission of the final report, whereby the firm/agency should carry out printing, data Collection, and Cleaning & merging exercise and submit findings with basic reports within given time period. 3. The firm should define the methodology of developing a system to collect, transmit and store the required data, including: I. ASC form with the required field to collect the data of each school. II. Methods of collecting the data and ensuring its completeness and correctness. 4. Preference will be given to those adopting modern approach to software utilization & implementation in field rather than a traditional having high risk of failure. 5. Online data collection through web & mobile application for some key indicators will be helpful for the dual checking of data at the time of data entry. The payment for the online data collection will be compensating with the double entry exercise of the data. 6. Firm will provide complete facilitation to RSU-SEMIS for monitoring and supervision of 10% schools (cost to be included in financial proposal). 7. Firm will scan copies of all filled- in questionnaires (folder archived district/taluka wise). 8. The assignment will be consulted and coordinated under Reform Support Unit, Education & Literacy Department, Government of Sindh and the Chief Program Manager (CPM) will be the key focal person for management/ co-ordination. 9. Payment schedule will be agreed to, in advance of contract finalization, and will include a share upon contract signing, and lump-sum after major deliverable milestones. 10. The firm will develop online/offline reporting module for system nearly 100 dynamics reports based on the data. 14. Deliverables / Reports The selected firm will provide the following deliverables and Reports during the course of the implementation of the assignment in a timely manner. All deliverables have to be authorized and approved by the RSU under the direct supervision of SPM-SEMIS. The firm will submit Inception Report consisting of a detailed work plan, human resources details and their JD s for field enumerators, data entry operators, supervisors, and all personnel s involved in ASC activity with logistics and equipment s details and data collection methodology. pg. 8 Deliverable 1 of Payment Schedule: (15 days from contract signing) 1. Inception report with complete work and staffing plan

9 pg The firm will submit progress report within first ten days and deliver the pilot report for data collected through developed application in first fifteen days. Deliverable 2 of Payment Schedule: (1 month from contract signing) 3. Hiring of enumerators / monitors as per approved 4. Forms / standards/ instruction sheet developed [Output/Evidence: ASC Questionnaire / Instruction sheet/ Reports] 5. The firm will submit updated progress report on printing of ASC questionnaire. 6. Mobile based application data collection report, delivered on DVD with testing reports and complete data set. [Output/Evidence: Data through Mobile Application and User manual) 7. Report summarized discussions with SEMIS team and a subset of the DO-SEMIS officers (district SEMIS representatives) to review the ASC administration. [Output/Evidence: Meeting Minutes / Action points]. 8. Training/Workshop Reports including process, feedback & recommendations. 9. Complete distribution of forms Deliverable 3 of Payment Schedule: (2 and a half months from contract signing) 10. Report on updated methodology of data collection on daily basis. 11. Data Management Reports (Taluka and District wise form distributed, received, return for correction etc.) 12. Periodic reports (daily reports through , weekly through signed hard copy). 13. Report based on final paper based and online data collection (for some key indicators) tools. Deliverable 4 of Payment Schedule: 14. The firm will also prepare simple statistical report with descriptive analysis of data collected from the field; the report will focus on enrollment, attendance, student-teacher-ratio and school-level infrastructure indicators compiled at the Taluka level. 15. More than 100 dynamic reports generated from final data set. The firm will develop Web based dynamic reports (as per given format). 16. The firm will submit report about School without SEMIS code, non-existing school, merged & consolidated school as per given geographical boundaries. Deliverable 5 of Payment Schedule: 17. Brief note/report reviewing the methodology and tools used and provide recommendations for future improvements to ASC administration. 18. Brief report/note on census administration and recommendations for future administration. [Output/Evidence: Recommendation for future administration report] 19. As a result of consultations with head teachers as well as SEMIS officers and central team, a brief note/report will be prepared reviewing the methodology and tools used and provide recommendations for future improvements to the census administration. 20. Complete database & data set, cleaned, formatted & merged accompanied by a detailed codebook. [Output/Evidence: (a) Cleaned dataset, (b) inconsistency

10 check reports, (c) Data Cleaning Reports, (d) final code book, (e) Pictures and (f) GPS Data etc.]. 21. Education Profile & statistical report along with district & Taluka level indicators. 22. Hand-over all Annual School Census Proforma a. ASC Proforma archived properly in box-folders (Taluka wise sorted order) b. Each Box folder proper labeled c. Index Sheet etc. Note: (The collected data should be archived and managed in CD / DVD and a portable drive as backup) 23. Scanned copies of all filled-in questionnaires (folder archived district / Taluka Wise) [Output/Evidence: Soft copy of images (JPG/PDF format) with standard nomenclature] 24. Any other Deliverable(s) demanded by Chief Program Manager and Program Officer (SEMIS) 15. The Payment The Payment schedule will be followed the basis of firm s performance and deliverables and required approvals. Table 1.1 S.No Deliverables Amount in Percentage Payment Process will Awarded 1. Submission and acceptance of 10% Deliverable indicated above for 1 st Payment 2. Submission and acceptance of Deliverable indicated above for 2 nd Payment 3. Submission and acceptance of Deliverable indicated above for 3 rd Payment 4. Submission and acceptance of Deliverable indicated above for 4 th Payment 5. Submission and acceptance of Deliverable indicated above for 5 th Payment 10% 30% 20% 30% All payments will be made after the reviews and approval of selected committee / Technical Team. 10% penalty may be laid if the deadlines not met. Note:- The data quality / accuracy (to be determined using field based monitoring by Monitors to be hired by ELD Staff and SEMIS Staff of 10% schools must be 80% or above other wise 30% payment will be deducted. The consultant firm has legal obligations to submit the deliverable up to the mark within the timeline framed thereto and approved the same from selection/technical Committee/Portfolio Manager in writing mentioned explicitly therein the submitted report is satisfied. If the consultant firm failed to submit such report, the clients have following remedies: i) That the client reserve right to institute Application/ Suit/Constitution Petition etc before the court of law having jurisdiction. The cost and consequences shall be on consultant firm. pg. 10

11 ii) That the client reserve right either to claim refund of total disbursed amount or the portion thereto as deem appropriate and reasonable from the consultant firm. iii) That the client reserve right to claim damages/ compensation on delay of settlement of issues irrupt out in the result of failure of the obligations made on the part of consultant firm. iv) That the consultant firm submits the Bank guarantee of the equal disbursed amount to the client, on the demand, for the period for evaluating report/ assignments/ deliverables etc. The client may forfeit the total or portion of amount if the issues arose out and may not be solved as per the condition of the contract. v) That the client may either to institute any claim before the competent court of law or invoke the jurisdiction of Arbitration. vi) That the cost/fees of Arbitrator shall be settled on equal proportion of both parties. 16. Contact Information 1. Interested firms can seek more information for developing the proposal for the assignment from: Ms. Farah Syed Program Officer (Sindh-EMIS) Reform Support Unit Education & Literacy Department Government of Sindh N.J.V School Building M.A. Jinnah Road Karachi Phone: Fax: In case of any dispute and issues, the interpretation of RSU will be followed for clarifying the matters. 3. The RSU reserves the right to cancel the proposal(s) of the data collection and entry exercise firms, if it does not meet the criteria set in the bidding documents. 4. All completed questionnaires, computer files, software application & databases, data collection, and entry materials will be the property of RSU. 17. Future Use of the Data The completed dataset will be made available to RSU, Education & literacy department, Govt. of Sindh, World Bank and other Planning Organization immediately after the data checking process will be completed. The firm may not use the data for their own research purposes, nor license the data to be used by others, without the written consent of all parties listed above. pg. 11