This Call for Expression of Interest is addressed to national professionals with expertise in the field of Early Childhood Education Leadership.
Interested applicants will potentially engage as experts in the process of developing the Training Manual of the Compulsory Training Program (CTP) for principals and aspiring principals of Early Childhood Education Institutions in Albania.

Introduction of the Center for School Leadership (CSL)

The Centre for School Leadership (CSL) has been established as result of cooperation between Albanian-American Development Foundation (AADF) and Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth (MoEYS) aiming to support the professional development of in-service principals and aspiring principals of public or private pre-university educational institutions, by administering the compulsory training, certification process and provide on-the-job continuous professional development training.
This structured and sustainable initiative between AADF and MoESY is institutionalized in their agreement signed on October 04, 2018, addressing the substantial need that the whole education system has on professional development of schools’ directors is based on the high benefits that the whole education system can have by investing on this segment of education system in Albania.
Ministry of Education, Youth & Sports proposed, and the Parliament approved the Law No. 48/2018 “On some additions and amendments to the Law No. 69/2012 ‘On the pre-university education system in Albania’ which made an additional mandatory requirement for all school principals and aspirants that must attend the compulsory training program and be certified by the Centre for School Leadership (CSL) to exercise that role. Based on this revised law, The Council of Minister approved the Decision No. 540/2018 dt. 19.09.2018 “On the organization and function of the CSL of Pre-University Education Institutions and their training and certification”, which provides its managerial, administrative, financial aspects.

Our mission: CSL is committed to prepare better school principals by building their professional leadership and managerial capacities through a high-quality school principal training program.

Our vision: The vision of CSL is to have schools with well-equipped leaders who positively affect school environment and directly increase the quality of education.

Background

School leadership plays an important role in improving overall school outcomes by influencing the motivations and capacities of teachers, as well as the school climate and ambiance. The Center for School Leadership’s main goal is creating and establishing a high quality training program aiming to prepare better school principals.

According to the Albanian Law No 48, 23.07.2018, the school principals of the pre-university institutions have the obligation to attend the Compulsory Training Program and successfully complete the certification process. According to the same Law (No.48, 23.07.2018), the Center for School Leadership is the entitled Institution who has the responsibility to conduct the training and certification process of pre-university principals and aspiring principals.

The Center for School Leadership in Albania has already a strong and proven experience in conducting the Compulsory Training Program and certification process for school principals aspiring principals of primary, secondary and high school institutions. Until April 2022, the Center for School Leadership have certified 334 school leaders in Albania.

This program is based on the successful model of the Avney Rosha Institute – Israel, for the training and certification of Pre-University Education Institutions (PUEI) principals and it is tailored to the latest needs and standards of PUEI principals in Albania and aims to train the school principals and the aspiring principals through a training program which is accredited by the Accreditation Commission of Training Programs at Ministry of Education Youth and Sport. The training program contains 6 modules and there is a distribution between theoretical and practical hours. All the participants who successfully complete the training program, are allowed to take the Certification Test.

The Certification Test consists of three sections:

• Final Project, Self-Evaluation Matrix and Action Plan
• Multiple choice questions to evaluate general knowledge acquired during the training program
• Case studies to measure leadership skills in decision making

From 2022, CSL will provide Compulsory Training Program (CTP) for pre-school principals across Albania.
For this reason, the Center for School Leadership (CSL) is currently in the process of designing the Training Program for principals of early childhood (pre-school) education institutions. In the Framework of designing the Training Program for principals of pre-school education institutions, the National Agency for Quality Assurance for Pre-University institutions have designed the “Professional standards for leaders of preschool education institutions.” The standards that define the work of principals in pre-school education institutions are as following:

1. Ethics and communication;
2. Mission, vision, and development plan of the preschool institution;
3. Leading changes within the educational institution;
4. Professional development and growth;
5. Curriculum implementation and child-centered teaching;
6. Kindergarten-family-community partnership and inter-institutional cooperation;
7. Human and financial resource management.

After the “Professional standards for leaders of preschool education institutions.” were designed, Center for School Leadership has collaborated with the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Pre-University Institutions (AQAPI) to identify the needs for training and professional development of pre-school principals.

In the process of “Identifying the needs for training and professional development of pre-school institutions”, principals of these institutions have conducted a self-assessment on their needs for training and professional development, referring to the indicators of the 7 standards of the leaders of preschool education institutions which are mentioned above.

The next step of the process will be to design the Program Manual for pre-school principals, and as such, the Center for School Leadership aims to collaborate with local and international experts that will engage in designing the content of the topics, duration of the overall training program and other crucial elements such as coaching and mentoring hours.

Pre-School Education System in Albania

Preschool education is part of the education system and is the level with code 0. Referring to the National Strategy for Education 2021-2026, based on data from 2018/2019, in the Republic of Albania there are 1,901 public kindergartens and 162 private kindergartens. Kindergartens are all-day (with food) and half-day (without food).

According to article 21, of law no. 69/2012, amended, “On the pre-university education system in the Republic of Albania”, preschool education aims at social, intellectual and physical development of each child, the exercise of rules of conduct and hygiene, cultivation of values, and preparation for education primary. It is attended by children aged three to six years. Children aged five are enabled to attend the preparatory class at primary schools, with the aim of integration into compulsory education.
Article 55/1 of the law on education is related to the “appointment and dismissal of the director of the preschool education institution”. In support of this article, as well as to increase the quality of services in kindergartens, ASCAP with the technical support of UNICEF, has drafted “Professional standards for leaders of preschool education institutions.”

The Law on Pre-University Education requires the principal to direct the activity of the educational institution, being responsible for improving the quality of the educational service, for the implementation and development of the curriculum, for the management of human resources, as well as for the management of financial resources.

Possession of knowledge in specific areas, such as: functioning of the preschool education system, policies at national and international level, related to early childhood developments, development and learning of preschool children, cooperation with parents, as key partners and more interested in the quality of services in kindergarten, encouraging teachers for professional development and increasing the quality of services to children, parents and the community, etc., requires that the principal be systematically involved in vocational training. This process is preceded by the formation of a leader according to professional standards and best international experiences.

Scope of the service

The scope of the service is to develop the Training Manual for the Compulsory Training Program for Pre-School Principals and aspiring principals. The Center for School Leadership, in collaboration with the Agency for Quality Assurance of Pre-University Institutions have completed the Need Assessment for Training and Professional Development of Pre-School Principals.
After the process of identifying the needs for training of the pre-school principals, the Center for School Leadership will continue to design and develop the Training Manual which will be used as a guide for trainers that will be involved in the training program with participants.

The contracted experts will be engaged in different duties as explained below:

– Engage as a national expert in the working group with international experts, that will be established to develop the modules of the Training Manual. The role of the expert in this case will be to develop the modules content, designed by international experts;
– Draft and provide suggestions on the most appropriate topics/contents that need to be included in the Training Manual.

Based on the needs of the Center for School Leadership, the expert might be engaged in one or more of the duties explained above;

Expectations from CSL

Through this call for expression of interest, the Center for School Leadership expects to contract national experts who will work closely with CSL team and international experts to design and develop the Training Manual of the Compulsory Training Program (CTP) for principals and aspiring principals of pre-school (early childhood) education institutions.
Qualification and Experience of the Service Provider
CSL is seeking to identify and contract national experts who show a deep understanding of teaching, learning and school leadership. As a minimum requirement, the Center for School Leadership is seeking for national experts with:
• Strong expertise in the fields of teaching, learning and pre-school education institutions leadership and management.
• Up-to-date knowledge in the area of pre-school leadership, particularly the relationship between the principal’s role and the improvement of teaching, learning, and children achievement.

Evaluation and selection criteria

The applicants will be evaluated by a committee of the Center for School Leadership. The components that will be evaluated are as following:
• Knowledge and working experience with leadership and management in early childhood education, quality improvements, development of systems and programs of early education, and policies that support early education leadership.

• Knowledge of education context in Albania, or similar contexts as Albania is an advantage.
• Financial Offer

Submission of application

The interested applicants will bring the required documents as following:

– Copy of a CV (please include in your CV a list of publications related to Early Childhood Education Leadership)
– Financial Offer (please specify the fee/hour or fee/day)

All the required information needs to be submitted in the email address info@csl.edu.al no later than 15 July 2022.

For questions related to the call for expression of interest, please send an email in the e-mail address info@csl.edu.al