Assessing the Impact of 2025 Earthquake in Myanmar’s Education Sector: Immediate Needs; and Mid and Long-Term Recovery Strategies

Call for Proposal (Organization/Firm)

Assessing the Impact of 2025 Earthquake in Myanmar’s Education Sector: Immediate Needs; and Mid and Long-Term Recovery Strategies

Organization: UNESCO Antenna Office in Yangon

Unit: Education

Duty Station Yangon, Myanmar

Type of contract: Contract for Services

Tentative Duration: July 2025 to October 2025

Deadline: June 17 2025 at 16:00 Yangon Time

Date: 3 June 2025

Terms of Reference

1. Background

United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization Antenna Office (hereafter UNESCO Office) in Yangon is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of equitable, inclusive and quality education in Myanmar, the realization of everyone’s right to education and the belief that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development. UNESCO is only the United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education and is committed for supporting Myanmar towards the realization of SDG-4 Education 2030 Framework for Action.

Myanmar has recently experienced a severe earthquake, resulting in significant disruption across numerous sectors, with education among the most affected. In light of this, the UNESCO Office will lead a comprehensive assessment to understand the scope and scale of the earthquake’s impact on the education in the affected regions, including eastern Bago, Kayin, Magway, Mandalay, Naypyitaw, South Shan and Sagaing. The assessment will take an approach examining not only physical damage to learning environments, but also the broader implications for access, equity and the continuity of learning. It will also explore how the crisis has affected students, teachers and families, including mental health, safety and well-being.

Beyond immediate damage assessment, the study will identify critical vulnerabilities within the education system and propose strategic recovery pathways. It will serve as a foundation for building resilience and ensuring inclusive, quality education during future emergencies. The results of the assessment will complement to UNESCO’s ongoing situational analysis and guide the development of a coordinated Joint Response Framework (JRF), facilitating alignment among humanitarian and development partners to restore and strengthen education delivery in Myanmar.

2. Objectives

The overall objectives are to assess the impact of the March 2025 earthquake on Myanmar’s education sector and provide both medium and long-term strategic needs for recovery. Specifically, the assessment aims to;

• Assess the damages to education infrastructures, including schools, learning spaces and education-related facilities across the impacted regions.
• Assess the impact on key stakeholders, including students and teachers with particular attention to psychosocial well-being, protection risks and disruptions to learning continuity.
• Identify critical gaps and emerging needs in service delivery, access to education and support systems that have been caused due to earthquakes.
• Make sure that the children’s voices are considered for the situation and planning for recovery.
• Develop evidence-based recommendations that address both short-term recovery interventions and long-term strategies for building back better and ensuring system resilience.

3. Assignment

The UNESCO Antenna Office in Yangon is looking for a national firm/Organisation/Entity for undertaking the study. Under the overall authority of the Director of UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok and the direct supervision of Head of UNESCO Antenna Office in Yangon, the contractor is responsible for carrying out the assessment. In case, use of subcontractors for specific elements of this work is required to carry out the study, the contractor with UNESCO as primary contract will be ultimately responsible for contracting and the quality of the work of any subcontractors.

3.1 Scope of the assessment

The assessment will examine the impact of March 2025 earthquake in Myanmar’s education sector, focusing on non-formal basic education[1] in the affected regions. It will assess the extent of damage to educational infrastructures, the safety and functionality of schools and immediate repair and reconstruction needs. The study will also explore how the earthquakes have affected teachers, students, guardians and stakeholders including psychosocial needs and access to education.

In addition, the assessment will review the overall education sector responses, identify coordination gaps among the stakeholders and outline medium and long-term priorities for recovery. The scope will be addressed through a combination of desk reviews, field observations and qualitative data collection, with research questions refined during the inception phase in consultation with the contracted firm.

The following is a set of prompt questions to guide the scope of the analysis. It is important to note that questions will be further discussed and finalized in consultations with relevant stakeholders in the inception stage.

Educational infrastructure:

• How many schools are functionable in affected regions? Whether the operational schools safe for students and teachers to continue teaching and learning?
• What is the extent of damage to the educational infrastructure (e.g. schools, classrooms, sanitation facilities) and what would be the estimated cost of repair/reconstruction/rehabilitation in the earthquake-affected areas?
• What are the immediate infrastructure needs for schools to function safely?
• For non-formal education centers, how have learning centers and community-based learning initiatives been affected by the earthquake?

Teachers

• How many teachers are affected (e.g., injured, displaced, unable to return)? Is there a shortage of teachers in the affected areas?
• How did the earthquake impacted teachers’ ability to teach and what are their primary needs for support (e.g., psychosocial support, empowerment, training or resources) to the post-earthquake educational context?

Students

• How many students have been displaced from their homes and schools?
• What are the impacts on students’ attendance in the area affected by earthquakes particularly in the area most impacted?
• What kind of psychosocial needs required to the students in order to continue their education and cope with the aftermath of the earthquake?

Sectoral needs:

• What are the immediate and mid-term educational needs in terms of infrastructure, temporary learning spaces and essential educational supplies?
• Effectiveness of current responses in education sector and what are the gaps among stakeholders (e.g., MoE, NGOs and other partners)?
• What are the key priorities for the recovery of the education sector over the short term, mid-term and long term?

3.2 Methodology

The following are proposed methods to carry out the assessment.

Desk review and secondary data analysis: Review rapid need assessment reports, sitreps, flesh updates and other relevant assessments, infrastructure conditions to compare with post-earthquake data (if available). This component will focus on identifying the gaps in thematic or geographical coverage rather than duplicating the efforts. This review will include analysis of school assessment done in the past and related data sources to contextualize current findings, highlight the trends and identify persisting or emerging needs. Reference to be made to the INEE Minimum Standards to guide the thematic framework and ensure a right-based, quality-focused approach as applicable.

School/Field observations: Visit damaged schools and temporary learning spaces to assess the extent of physical damage, the safety of school environment and determine the conduciveness of spaces for teaching and learning activities. The assessment may also include an inventory of available resources, such as the presence and condition of temporary learning facilities and essential educational materials.

Key information interview/Focus group discussion to gather qualitative data from stakeholders, including schools, teachers, households, students, community leaders and education officials (if available) on barriers to education and existing support mechanism.

The methodology will remain open and flexible to accommodate the evolving context on the ground. New approaches, tools, and strategies may be adopted based on emerging needs and contextual realities and will be finalized during the inception phase in consultation with key stakeholders.

The data collection must be carried out with careful attention to confidentiality, security and ethical considerations, particularly regarding marginalized or vulnerable groups.

4. Expected Tasks, Deliverables and Timeline

Inception phase: The contractor will conduct preliminary desk review and consultations with UNESCO Office (and other relevant stakeholders) to refine objectives, scope of the analysis, research questions and develop overarching approaches, detailed methodology, research matrix, sampling strategy, quality assurance, workplan and broad approach towards learning session. Expected deliverables are a draft and final inception report by early July.

Data collection phase: The contractor will design primary data collection tools, conduct data collection and collate secondary data/information. This includes a debrief session on primary data collection with the UNESCO Office along with relevant stakeholders at the end of the primary data collection. Expected deliverables are data collection tools, presentation deck on debriding primary data collection by end of August.

Analysis and reporting phase: The contractor will conduct in-depth analysis of desk review and secondary and primary data collection. Additionally, there will be a validation of emerging findings and co-construct recommendations session with UNESCO Office (and relevant stakeholders if necessary). Draft report and revision of the report will be done in alignment with UNESCO and other relevant stakeholders’ insights to finalize the report. Expected deliverables are a draft and final report by the end of October.

Learning and dissemination phase: The contractor will focus on sharing the findings, lessons learned and fostering recommendations with relevant stakeholders. Online or in person learning sessions are expected to be conducted. Expected deliverables are a draft and final PPT deck by the end of October.

*It is important to highlight that the expected scope of the consultancy outlined above will evolve in response to emerging needs from stakeholders over the course of consultancy period.

[1] Non-formal schools refer to education institutions operating outside the Ministry of Education system. These may include faith-based schools, community-based schools and learning centers supported by NGOs or INGOs. This definition excludes international and private schools.