Consultant on Out-of-School Children and Youth

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Consultant on Out-of-School Children and Youth - Rights-Based Research and Policy Analysis

JOB DETAILS

Type of contract : Consultant Contract

Level : Level 2 - Middle

Hiring Unit : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station : Paris

Work location : Remote

Duration of contract : 4 months

Hiring open to : External candidates

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

OVERVIEW

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

Exclusion across education trajectories

Despite major expansion of education worldwide, an estimated 273 million children and youth of primary and secondary school age remain out of school, and many more enrolled learners are at risk of leaving before completion. Educational exclusion is not a single event: learners may never enter education, enter late, disengage progressively, leave before completion, be excluded at critical transition points, or be unable to find an appropriate pathway back. The challenge starts early and does not stop at secondary school. While higher education enrolment has grown rapidly to 269 million students with a gross enrolment ratio of 44% in 2024, yet the global gross graduation ratio for bachelor's and master's programmes was 27%, and available evidence points to significant attrition in many systems. Systematic and internationally comparable data on higher education dropout remain limited. Understanding exclusion therefore requires following learner trajectories, from early learning to tertiary education, rather than treating being "out of school" as a single status.

Profiles, barriers and the architecture of systems

Exclusion results from the interaction between learner profiles that face disproportionate risks and the barriers that prevent learners from entering, remaining in, progressing through or completing education. Risks are unevenly distributed across children affected by poverty, disability, gender inequality, displacement, ethnicity or language, rural isolation, and conflict or climate vulnerability, and they compound through intersectionality. The barriers can be read as push factors (poor quality or relevance of learning, unsafe or discriminatory school environments, inaccessible schools, weak support for learners at risk), pull factors (poverty and education-related costs, child labour and care responsibilities, social norms, migration, displacement, conflict- or climate-related disruption) and systemic factors (underinvestment, regional and socioeconomic inequalities, legal and administrative restrictions, weak governance and planning, exclusionary rules on admission, progression or recognition of learning). These are points of intervention, not exclusive causes: a learner may face poverty, meet an inaccessible school, and live in a system too weak to respond. The architecture of education systems matters in itself. High-stakes examinations, early tracking, restrictive admission rules, limited articulation between academic and vocational routes, and the absence of viable routes for re-entry can all amplify exclusion at critical transition points.

ASSIGNMENTS

Specifically, the Consultant shall carry out the following tasks:

• Conduct desk-based research, literature review, and data collection on the profiles of OOSCY, as well as on the specific push, pull, and systemic factors driving children and youth out of school across the world building on work conducted by UNESCO. This will draw on existing material, notably Member State’s reports on normative instruments, UIS and GEM Report data, OOSCI reports, the Observatory of the right to Education and United Nations treaty body and UPR outcomes. The approach will be based on mapping the available sources, analyzing the push, pull and systemic factors using the 5A framework, and triangulation of legal, policy, and statistical evidence.
• If required, prepare a questionnaire to complement the research and analysis of the profiles of OOSCY, and factors of exclusion and dropouts, focusing on the gaps identified under task 1.
• Identify key project partners and discussion contributions they can make to the paper, conduct consultations.
• Identify promising practices from different regions, including those reported in notably the sources listed under task 1.
• Propose a detailed outline including solutions and policy guidance for Member States and other key stakeholders. The paper, and its findings, policy pointers and conclusions, will feed UNESCO’s broader OOSC Toolkit, to strengthen its rights-based dimension.
• According to a detailed outline provided by UNESCO, and by liaising with key partners of the project, elaborate a draft paper on out-of-school children and youth from a ri