REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (REOI)
(CONSULTING SERVICES – FIRM SELECTION)

Project Name: National Plan for the Teaching and Learning of French in Rwanda (PNFR)
Source of fund: MINEDUC/AFD

Grant Agreement Number: CRW105901R

Submission deadline: Refer to Umucyo.

Assignment Title: Consultancy Service for Using Online Pedagogical Training of French as Foreign Language, Assessment and Certification of French Teachers





1. PROJECT BACKGROUND
The overall objective of the National Plan for the Teaching and Learning of French in Rwanda (PNFR) is to respond to the Government of Rwanda’s October 2018 decision to use the French language more broadly across sectors including education, training, and professional world. This plan has been endorsed by the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) on the 1st of April 2022 and aims at promoting the teaching and learning of French in Rwanda. French is one of Rwanda’s official languages, recognized in the 2003 Constitution.

In 2008, Rwanda entered the EAC and shifted from French language to English as the language of instruction in public sector. Recognizing the potential for enhanced collaboration with the francophone countries, the Plan is designed to shift the approach to learning French from its use as a language of instruction to learning it as a foreign language for real-world situations thanks to innovative, context-grounded teaching practices. In this way the Plan works to improve the efficiency of the time spent studying French, meeting students’ needs more directly by taking into account the learning context and the more specific and strategic opportunities for how French can help them, particularly in meeting the needs of the labour market and in higher education fields of study. The Plan emphasizes French learning for STEM and the use of ICT in language learning.

The PNFR has four strategic components that will be implemented by MINEDUC in close collaboration with its affiliated agencies: REB (Rwanda basic Education Board), NESA (National Examination and School Inspection Authority), RTB (Rwanda TVET Board), RP (Rwanda Polytechnic), HEC (Higher Education Council), and UR (University of Rwanda).

Those strategic components are the following:
a) Strengthen the French teachers’ level of French proficiency
b) Strengthen the appeal of the French language & access to a renovated, action-oriented approach to teaching French
c) Contribute to improved employability through French
d) Coordinate and implement the plan.

2. ASSIGNMENT
This assignment intends to register teachers to a pedagogical programme that would be online about the pedagogy of teaching French as a foreign language.
This MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) should offer a short, simple and structuring training course in order to develop and improve the professional skills of teachers of French as a foreign language (FFL) and will, for most of the participants, constitute a first professional certification in the didactics of FFL.
It will be demanded to the firm to share the pedagogical contents of the MOOC that will be posted on the Ministry of Education e-learning platform.


3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TERMS OF REFERENCE

The existing pedagogical MOOC should get the following aspects:
a) Online application with recognized certificates.
b) Concise but effective MOOC in delivering knowledge and skills about the pedagogy of FFL (about 50 hours online to finish it).
c) Collaborative (exchange with other participants).
d) Friendly and flexible MOOC to the users (it should allow the teachers to train themselves on their own rhythm at any time of the day).
e) Training activities about the principles and key concepts of FFL teaching and learning, how to organize and animate a FFL lesson, how to exploit authentic documents, how to build a pedagogical sequence, how to evaluate, …
f) Various interactive activities with videos, pedagogical forms, quiz and tests
g) Monitoring window to check/follow up the progress of the trainees on timely basis to ensure the success for final exam.

This MOOC will provide access to at least 600 teachers/trainers/ education specialists.


4. TENDER REQUIREMENT & REGISTRATION

The selected firm will have at least 5 years’ experience of proposing and offering this MOOC in the field of FFL. The firm shall ensure the quality and recognition of the MOOC in matter of contents and activities linked with the modern pedagogy of teaching and learning FFL.
The transfer of knowledge through the sharing of the pedagogical contents of the MOOC will be important for the sustainability of the project.

The shortlisting criteria/required documents are:
1. The description and documents indicating that the firm performed similar services with same complexity and nature in the last 5 years.
2. Description of the MOOC in link with the brief description of ToRs.
3. Certificate of company registration issued by Country of registration with business-related activities.
4. Submission of EOI Letter.
5. Signed statement of integrity.

 The Request for Proposals (RFP) will be issued to the shortlisted consulting firms whose EOIs are most qualified to the assignment. The shortlist of selected firms will be between 4 and 6.
 All EOI can be written in English or French and must be submitted on the deadline set by the e-procurement system. EOI will be opened on the same day in the e-procurement system.
 The RFP is published on both e-procurement systems: AFD’s dgMarket and Rwanda Governement’s UMUCYO. Bidders are required to submit their bid on UMUCYO.
 Bidders are required to register with Rwanda’s e-procurement system (UMUCYO) on the following website Rwanda On-Line E-Procurement System (umucyo.gov.rw).
 For this specific REOI, the bidders can contact RPPA (Rwanda Public Procurement Authority) on the following e-mail address e-procurement@rppa.gov.rw for registration and submission of their EOI.
 The candidates who are black listed are not eligible (each candidate will undergo a check of UN, EU, France and World Bank financial sanctions lists).
For further information regarding the tender, interested eligible bidders can enquire through UMUCYO e-procurement System and through the following e-mail address: info@mineduc.gov.rw

The deadline for submitting the EOI is the 17 th of March 2023.