Room to Read’s Foundational Literacy Program in Jharkhand
Anchoring and Delivery of Orientation Programme for Jharkhand Field Workforce
Scope of Work (SoW)
for
Hiring an External Agency for Orientation and Capacity Building
1. Organizational Overview
Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read develops children’s foundational literacy skills, as well as life skills that promote gender equality. We nurture these essential skills in children by training and coaching educators, creating quality learning materials and spaces, strengthening education systems, and delivering programs directly and with partners – all while honouring the dignity of every child. Committed to accelerating learning outcomes for more children, more quickly, Room to Read has benefited children across 29 countries, with more than 17 million children actively benefiting from our programming in 2025 alone. Room to Read India’s literacy operations currently span across 12 states, with a focus on improving children’s reading skills, access to quality learning materials, and supportive learning environments. Room to Read envisions a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality, where all children have room to read, learn and grow. Visit us at https://www.roomtoreadindia.org/
2. Jharkhand Foundational Literacy Project Overview
Room to Read is preparing for a significant scale-up of its Foundational Literacy & Numeracy initiative in Jharkhand, expanding implementation across multiple districts and requiring a substantial field workforce to support programme delivery. As Room to Read expands its field implementation in Jharkhand, a substantial number of staff will join different field-facing and supervisory roles. As part of the planned scale-up, Room to Read expects to onboard more than 150 staff in Phase 1 across field implementation, supervisory and district-level leadership roles. A second cohort of approximately 120 additional staff is expected to be onboarded in Phase 2 as implementation expands to the remaining districts.
3. Objective of the Assignment
The overarching objective of this assignment is to ensure that over two phases 250+ team members in Jharkhand are ready for project implementation.
Phase 1 will aim at getting all 150+ staff members ready for project implementation by March 31st, 2027.
Phase 2 will follow the same approach for an additional 120+ team members, with the orientation programme to be completed by 30 March 2028, followed by final review, handover and closure activities in April 2028.
Specifically, the assignment aims to:
- Identify role-wise orientation requirements:In consultation with internal teams of Room to Read, Identify the knowledge, behaviours and practical skills required for each identified field and supervisory role and distinguish between common and role-specific needs.
- Prepare a structured orientation plan:Define the learning objectives, content sequence, duration and delivery approach for each participant group, including what should be covered during the initial orientation and what may require follow-up support. As much as possible, host the entire process on Moodle[1]. Room to Read has access to Moodle which will be shared with the agency.
- Anchor the orientation programme:In partnership with RtR’s internal teams, anchor the agreed in-person orientation sessions for the identified staff cohorts in Jharkhand using participatory and practice-based methods.
- Create a dashboard to report the progress of all participants: Track participant progress against an agreed “Outcome and competency framework”, highlighting learning progress, identified gaps and areas requiring additional support, coaching or refresher inputs. The information should primarily be used to identify learning gaps and determine where participants may require additional learning support, coaching or reinforcement, rather than merely for grading or evaluation.
- Review the effectiveness of the orientation:Use participant assessments, feedback and facilitator observations to understand what participants have learned, where they continue to face difficulty and what aspects of the programme may need improvement.
- Provide post-orientation Strengthening:Conduct focused refresher sessions in October/November based on field experience, manager feedback and capability gaps identified after the first round of training. A minimum competency/benchmark shall be established in consultation with RTR and participants who do not meet the minimum benchmark shall be identified and, where required, provided with remedial/re-training support. The Agency shall provide a final participant-wise competency status.
- Strengthen the programme for future cohorts:Revise the orientation content, activities and supporting materials based on learning from the first rollout, and use the updated package for subsequent cohorts, including the second phase of training planned for 2028.
- Ensure continuity beyond the assignment:Hand over a complete and editable set of orientation materials, tools and guidance that Room to Read can retain, update and use for future staff cohorts. All project-specific training materials, content, tools, assessments, reports and other deliverables developed specifically for RTR under this assignment shall be provided to RTR in editable and/or agreed formats. (RTR will have complete ownership and usage rights of such materials, including whether RTR may subsequently use, modify or reproduce them for internal training purposes.)
10. Agency Requirements & Qualifications
The agency should preferably:
- Preferred 3 years of relevant experience in designing and delivering orientation, training or capability-building programmes for field-based teams, particularly in the education, development or government-facing sector.
- Have completed at least 2 similar assignments involving training across multiple batches, locations or large participant groups.
- Demonstrate experience in learning-needs assessment, adult-learning design, content development and participatory training methodologies.
- Demonstrate experience in developing facilitator guides, participant materials, simulations, assessments, job aids or other training resources, and provide 1-2 relevant samples where available.
- Have the ability to deliver training in Hindi and deploy an adequate pool of suitable facilitators for implementation across Jharkhand.
- Provide details and CVs of the proposed core team and key facilitators, including their qualifications, relevant experience, roles and expected level of engagement in the assignment. The agency should ensure continuity of key facilitators, with minimal changes during each phase of the assignment.
- Demonstrate experience in assessing training effectiveness through participant feedback, assessments, learning-progress tracking and/or follow-up or refresher support.
- Have established systems for project management, quality assurance, documentation, progress tracking and reporting, with the ability to maintain consistency across training cohorts.
- Provide details of at least 2 relevant past clients/assignments that may be referred to for verification of experience and performance.
HOW TO APPLY
Proposals are invited from the interested agencies for the above assignment and the last date for receiving the proposal is 23rd Sep 2026 at?procurement.india@roomtoread.org[do not copy anyone from RtR in the email]
Kindly submit two separate emails with the following subject lines:
- EMAIL (1): TECHNICAL PROPOSAL – Orientation & capacity building - 2026-28
- EMAIL (2): FINANCIAL PROPOSAL – Orientation & capacity building – 2026-28
Submission terms:
- All agencies are advised to thoroughly review the ToR before applying.
- Technical and Financial proposal (as per above financial template) are to be shared in two different emails separately and not in a single email (mandatory)
- Incomplete applications or deviations from the prescribed process will result in automatic rejection.
- Proposals received after the prescribed deadline will not be considered.
- Only shortlisted agencies will be contacted and may be requested for face-to-face/online interaction/presentation.
For any queries, please contact:
Vivek Shrawat
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFP attached below.
[1] Moodle is a Learning Management System (LMS), currently accessible to Room to Read, that can be used to host learning content, create learner cohorts, assign courses, conduct assessments and track training completion.