External Agency Onboarding
About Room to Read
Room to Read is a global organization transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, our innovative model focuses on deep, systemic transformation within schools during two time periods that are most critical in a child’s schooling: early primary school for literacy acquisition and secondary school for girls’ education. We work in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations, and governments to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensure girls can complete secondary school with the skills necessary to negotiate key life decisions.
By focusing on the quality of education provided within the communities and ensuring these outcomes are measured, we have created a model that can be replicated, localized, and sustained by governments. With its global headquarters in San Francisco, Room to Read till date has benefited 32 million children across 21 low-income countries. Room to Read India was established in 2003 and presently has programs in twelve states – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi NCR, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. By working closely with the government and other partner organizations to create equal and robust education systems that reach the most vulnerable children and improve teaching and learning environments.
About the program
The Room to Read (RtR) Literacy Program supports early grade children in developing strong foundational skills, with a focus on reading with comprehension and fluency. It works in close partnership with government systems to strengthen classroom instruction, provide teacher training and coaching, and ensure access to high-quality, age-appropriate materials in regional languages.
A key emphasis of the program is enabling teachers with structured pedagogy and ongoing support, rather than one-time training, to improve everyday teaching practices. Alongside this, RtR promotes the use of engaging supplementary materials and dedicated focused time to build foundational skills.
Importantly, RtR aligns its efforts with national priorities and is actively supporting state governments in achieving the goals of NIPUN Bharat, particularly around Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN), through scalable and system-integrated approaches.
The States aims to strengthen foundational numeracy outcomes in early grades by supporting teachers with high-quality, practical Teacher Guides (TGs) aligned to the state textbooks and other supplementary material. These materialss are intended to enable teachers to effectively transact textbooks, address diverse learning needs, and build conceptual understanding among students.
To support this effort, the Room to Read seeks to onboard a qualified agency with expertise in early grade mathematics, curriculum design, and teacher support materials to develop TGs and other supplementary material aligned to state textbook for Grades 1 and 2. Quality material that strengthen teachers’ ability to facilitate conceptual understanding, not just procedural learning and integrates guidance on addressing diverse learning levels within the classroom and provides practical, classroom-ready strategies, including examples, activities, and assessments
Objective
The objective of this SoW is to onboard an experienced agency to develop high-quality, accurate, contextually appropriate, and culturally sensitive educational materials that support effective program delivery.
Scope of Work
The agency will be responsible for aligning all content with the state curriculum and textbooks for Grades 1 and 2 by reviewing existing curriculum frameworks, textbooks, and learning outcomes, and mapping the Teacher Guide (TG) content to textbook chapters and competency progression. It will develop detailed Teacher Guides for each unit, including clear concept explanations to strengthen teacher understanding, step-by-step classroom transaction guidance, contextual and low-resource teaching-learning activities, strategies to address common misconceptions, and approaches to support children at different learning levels. The TGs will also include sample oral and written questions to assess understanding, along with suggestions for periodic assessment.
The pedagogical design will align with key principles of RtR’s early grade numeracy, ensuring a focus on conceptual understanding before procedural fluency with an emphasis on number sense and problem-solving. Guidance for multilevel classrooms will be incorporated where relevant. The materials will also embed inclusive practices, support children and encouraging participation of all learners, while ensuring that the language used is simple, clear, and teacher friendly.
The agency will participate in iterative review cycles with the internal and technical partners, revising drafts based on feedback. The agency will also support in developing orientation materials such as presentations or training modules.
Key Deliverables
1. Content Framework and Curriculum Mapping
- Develop 01 (One) detailed content framework aligned with state curriculum, textbooks, NIPUN Bharat, and FLN goals for Grade 1-2.
- Develop 01 (One) curriculum mapping framework aligning chapter-wise Learning Outcomes (LOs) for Grades 1–2 with weekly and daily lesson plans.
2. Development of Teacher Guides (TGs)
- Develop 02 (two) Teacher Guides (TGs) for Grades 1 and 2 covering all chapters/units as per the agreed scope and sequence. Each TG will include learning outcomes, conceptual explanations, mathematics teaching strategies, daily lesson plans, classroom activities, assessment approaches, and remedial support strategies integrating existing manipulatives given by the state government.
3. Supplementary Materials
- Identify gaps in textbook chapters related to student practice and competency coverage for Grades 1–2.
- Develop supplementary materials, including worksheets and task cards, to address the identified gaps and provide sufficient practice opportunities aligned with learning outcomes and competencies.
4. Gap Analysis Report of existing Teacher Training Manual
- Develop 01 (one) gap analysis report by reviewing and aligning the existing manual with the newly developed Teacher Guides and pedagogical approaches.
5. Design and Print-Ready Files
- Develop designed, print-ready versions of all Teacher Guides, supplementary materials in editable Adobe InDesign format.
- The process will involve iterative reviews (3 times) and feedback incorporation from the RtR team.
- The design blueprint, including the design template, Layout and style sheet, will be shared by RtR.
How to Apply
Proposals are invited from the interested agency for the above assignments and the last date for receiving the proposal is 12th July 2026 at procurement.india@roomtoread.org [do not copy anyone from RtR]
Kindly submit two separate emails with following subject lines:
- EMAIL (1): TECHNICAL PROPOSAL – Numeracy Instructional Material Development
- EMAIL (2): FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – Numeracy Instructional Material Development
Note:
- Read the SOW thoroughly before applying.
- Only Shortlisted agency will be contacted.
- Any incomplete application or process deviation, the proposals will automatically be rejected.
- Proposal received after the prescribed deadline will not be considered.
- Selected agency will be required to sign and abide by the Child Protection policy of Room to Read.
- The selected agency shall be required to visit the Delhi office one or two times, as required, for in-person review of the developed materials during the course of the project
For queries, please contact:
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the advert attached below.