DID TO45 - Strengthening systems for the enrolment, retention and support of children with disabilities at primary level of mainstream education in Bangladesh - Phase 2

This task order is the direct continuation of task order 13 that was implemented between January 2021 and March 2022. Despite the prolonged school closure due to COVID-19, followed by a directive of the Department for Primary Education (DPE) preventing NGOs from working with schools in the primary sector, it was possible to undertake the ground work for the work under TO45 from April 2022 onwards: Analysis of country policies and systems related to education of children with disabilities, strategy development, capacity assessment and development of project teams and OPDs, tools development, and a new piece of qualitative research that will now help to inform the increased role of homebased support. Within TO13 PENDA conducted a baseline survey as part of the RCT, identifying the children with disabilities in the intervention areas. The ambition of this task order is that girls and boys with disabilities have equal access to quality education and support in Narshingdi and Sirajganj districts of Bangladesh. School-centric activities and a focus on children with severe and multiple disabilities will continue being core pillars of TO45 as planned at the onset of designing the intervention. However, the new scenarios brought by the COVID-19 pandemic makes it advisable to refocus the project on intensifying community engagement and home-based education throughout the duration of TO45 and in particular during the first six months. A phased approach has been adopted, by focussing during the first six months on working at community level and providing home-based education linked to the mainstream education system, with the aim of preparing children to be enrolled or reenrolled. In that phase activities will also focus on obtaining the DPE’s project approval for directly engaing with schools.Phase two will see the consortium working across the three levels of intervention of the task order: Individual and Community; Education Systems and Services; and Governance and Policy. Producing evidence and learning is a key goal of TO45. The final research piece from PENDA will provide evidence on the impact of inclusive education in Bangladesh for children with different types and severity of their impairment. Other prioritised learning areas are OPD engagement, the School Level Improvement Plans, home-based learning and the referral pathways and support services available for children with disabilities. For the this Task Order a total of 9,476 work days are calculated over the 28 months implementation period (=18.5 FTE): 4,436 days (46.8%) in Frontline Delivery; 2,510 days (26.6 %) in Programme Management; and 2,510 days (26.6%) in Programme Support and Administration.