Terms of Reference for Local Curriculum Development

Shechen Karuna

Terms of Reference for Local Curriculum Development

Organization Overview

Shechen Karuna, a national level NGO thrives to contribute in breaking the cycle of extreme poverty, strengthening the resilience and developing the full potential of poor, vulnerable or distressed populations. The organization mainly works in remote part of Nepal through a local, community-driven and integrated approach interconnecting the sectors of health and hygiene, education, food security, economic development and environment.

Rational

The National Curriculum Framework emphasizes contextualized learning that reflects local needs, cultures, and priorities while fostering holistic development in learners. Local governments, as per the constitutional mandate are entrusted with developing and implementing the local curriculum to complement the national curriculum. However, many local curriculums currently in practice remain limited in scope and do not fully capture local knowledge, culture, and community-specific realities that can enrich students’ understanding of their own environment and society. In addition, they often lack adequate integration of emerging and essential themes such as environmental education, climate change, waste management, soft and life skills, and mindfulness practices, areas that are not explicitly covered in the national curriculum but are crucial for developing informed, responsible, and resilient learners.

Given the growing relevance of these cross-cutting areas in preparing learners for sustainable living, social responsibility, and emotional well-being, there is a pressing need to review and strengthen the existing local curriculums. A systematic review will ensure that the local curriculum aligns with the guiding principles of the national curriculum framework, promotes experiential and value-based learning, and responds effectively to the local context and developmental priorities.

To achieve this, a local curriculum specialist consultant will be engaged to assess the existing local curriculums developed by partner rural municipalities, identify gaps, and recommend practical approaches for integrating environment, soft skills, life skills, and mindfulness practices. The consultant will also support in developing reference materials, teacher guides to facilitate effective implementation and classroom delivery of the local curriculum.

This consultancy is thus essential to bridge the gap between policy and practice, strengthen local education systems, and promote quality, inclusive, and contextually relevant learning experiences for children.

Objective

This intervention will be carried out in Bijayanagar Rural Municipality and Yashodhara Rural Municipality of Kapilvastu District and in Ruby Valley Rural Municipality and Khaniyabas Rural Municipality of Dhading District. These local levels have already developed and implemented local curriculums, which now require systematic review and revision to better reflect local knowledge, environmental priorities, and the evolving educational needs of their communities.

The review process will particularly focus on integrating and strengthening key thematic areas such as:

• Environmental education, including locally relevant issues such as climate change impacts, community based mitigation practices, waste management, and sustainable resource use within the local context.
• Life skills and soft skills development that encourage learners to apply critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration in ways that address local challenges and community development needs.
• Mindfulness practices tailored to different age groups, promoting emotional well being, self regulation, and a sense of connection to the local environment and community values.
• Hard or vocational skills that strengthen practical learning linked to local livelihoods, traditional knowledge, and emerging economic opportunities within the community.

The overall objective of this consultancy is to review, revise, and enhance the existing local curriculums to make them more contextually relevant, inclusive, and responsive to emerging educational priorities, particularly those related to environmental sustainability, life skills, and holistic child development.

The specific objectives are to:

1. Review existing local curriculums currently implemented by partner rural municipalities, with reference to the National Curriculum Framework and local development priorities.

2. Engage and coordinate with key stakeholders, including education committees, municipal officials, teachers, and local experts to gather inputs and feedback on existing curriculum themes, gaps, and areas for improvement.

3. Revise and enrich the local curriculum to incorporate cross cutting and emerging themes such as:

• Environmental education, climate change impacts and mitigation, and waste management;
• Soft skills and life skills including communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving etc;
• Mindfulness and age-appropriate socio-emotional learning practices;
• Hard/vocational skills relevant to local livelihoods and sustainability.

4. Develop or update curriculum implementation guidelines, including teaching learning strategies, reference materials, and teacher support tools for effective classroom delivery.

5. Facilitate consultative workshops and review meetings to validate proposed revisions and ensure consensus among stakeholders.

6. Coordinate with additional subject or topic specific experts as required, ensuring that technical inputs in specialized areas (e.g., environment, soft skills, or mindfulness) are effectively integrated into the revised curriculum and supporting materials.

7. Support (if required) in managing and coordinating with additional subject or topic specific human resources (e.g., specialists in environment, life skills, or mindfulness) as required, ensuring that their technical inputs are effectively integrated into the revised curriculum and related materials.

Scope of Work / Key Tasks

The consultant will be responsible for leading the curriculum review and revision process in close coordination with local governments, education committees, and partner organizations. The key tasks will include, but are not limited to:

1. Review and Assessment

• Collect and review the existing local curriculums, available teacher reference materials, and any related documents currently implemented by the respective local governments.
• Assess the alignment of existing content with the national curriculum framework and identify strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement.

2. Stakeholder Consultations

• Conduct consultations and focused group discussions with local education committees, teachers, school representatives, and community members to gather insights and feedback on the relevance and effectiveness of the current curriculum.
• Facilitate participatory workshops to review current themes and topics and collect inputs for revision.

3. Curriculum revision and integration of key themes

• Revise and enrich the local curriculum by incorporating key thematic areas, including environment education, climate change impacts and mitigation, waste management, soft skills, life skills, mindfulness practices (age-appropriate), and hard/vocational skills.
• Ensure thematic integration across grades and subjects in a coherent, practical, and age-appropriate manner.

4. Development of implementation guidelines and reference materials

• Prepare or update curriculum implementation guidelines for teachers and schools to support effective classroom delivery.
• Develop reference materials, sample lesson outlines, and teaching learning aids that reflect revised themes and encourage experiential learning.

5. Coordination and management of additional experts

• Identify (If required) and coordinate with additional subject or topic specific human resources (e.g., experts in environment, life skills, mindfulness) as needed to provide specialized technical inputs during the review and content development process.

6. Validation and Finalization

• Organize validation workshops with key stakeholders to review the draft revised curriculum, implementation guidelines, and materials.
• Incorporate final feedback and produce the complete, ready-to-use set of curriculum documents and supporting materials.

Deliverables of the Consultancy

The consultant will deliver the following outputs:

1. Inception report: Detailing the work plan, methodology, timeline, and list of stakeholders to be consulted.
2. Curriculum review report: Summarizing findings from the assessment of existing local curriculums, including identified gaps and recommendations for improvement.
3. Revised local curriculum: Reflecting integrated themes on environment, climate change, waste management, life skills, mindfulness, vocational/hard skills, and other locally relevant topics agreed by local level stakeholder.
4. Curriculum implementation guidelines: Providing structured guidance for teachers, including practical classroom approaches and activity-based learning strategies.
5. Teacher reference and support materials: Including thematic reference notes, activity examples, sample lesson plans, and content outlines.
6. Consultation and validation workshop reports: Documenting key discussions, participant feedback, and consensus points.
7. Final revised curriculum and teacher reference books and materials: Ready for use by local governments and schools, incorporating all validated revisions and recommendations.
8. Final consolidated report: Summarizing the overall process, key findings, revisions made, stakeholder inputs, and recommendations for effective rollout and future adaptation.

Duration and Level of Effort

The overall tasks is expected to be accomplished within 3 months period from the date of assignment contract. The estimated level of effort per rural municipality is outlined below (to be finalized in consultation with the selected consultant and project team): Interested firms or individual are requested to submit their detail plan with estimated level of efforts in each task and detail associated cost with the proposed task as per the scope of the task.

(note: Please review the outlined activities carefully and propose the estimated number of working days required for each task based on your proposed approach and methodology.)

Total Estimated Level of Effort: ___ working days

The consultant will work closely with the project focal person and designated representatives from local governments throughout the assignment. Additional subject or topic specific human resources will be managed by SK as per the requirements identified during the process.

Qualifications and Experience:

The consultant will be an experienced education and curriculum development specialist with a strong understanding of Nepal’s education system, national and local curriculum frameworks, and participatory curriculum design processes.

Academic Qualifications

• Master’s degree or higher in Education, Educational Planning and Management, Development Studies or a related field.

Professional Experience

• At least 5 years of proven experience in curriculum design, review, or development at the national or local level.
• Demonstrated experience in integrating cross-cutting themes such as environmental education, climate change, waste management, life skills, and mindfulness practices into education programs or curricula.
• Experience in developing teacher training materials, curriculum implementation guidelines, or textbooks.
• Familiarity with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and local curriculum development processes in Nepal.
• Experience in conducting stakeholder consultations, participatory workshops, and managing multi-sectoral technical inputs.
• Proven ability to manage and coordinate additional subject-specific experts and consolidate their contributions effectively.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, and report-writing skills in English and Nepali.

We invite interested and eligible individuals/organizations to submit their proposals within 30 days from the date of this announcement.

Please note that the selection will be done on a rolling basis, so early submissions are encouraged.