Elaboration of the National Strategy for School and Professional Guidance

Agency: UNDP | Reference: UNDP-CPV-00170 | Type: Call for individual consultants Description of the Assignment:a) Rationale and contextA UNICEF–World Bank consortium has been selected by the Government of Cabo Verde to support the institutional strengthening of the education sector (System Capacity Grant — SCG). In its Axis 2 — Gender-sensitive planning and sector monitoring, led by UNICEF Cabo Verde —, the elaboration of a National Strategy for School and Professional Guidance (ENOEP) and its action plan is foreseen.With practically universal and equitable access to basic education achieved, equity challenges have shifted from access to progression and choices, and data from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education, Science and Innovation (MEFPESCI) allow us to pinpoint where the progression breaks down.1 The 7th, 8th, and 9th grades of schooling constitute the main points of student dropout in the system. According to the study on “Determinants of school dropout”, the internal efficiency coefficient in the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades was 57.4% — 65.9% for girls and 48.7% for boys in 2023.According to the above-mentioned study, the parity index in access to the 12th grade is between 1.36 and 1.50: for every two girls who access the final year, only one boy does. In 2022/2023, 12.9% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 were out of the education system (15.4% of boys and 10.2% of girls). The reasons identified among those who left the system point to the felt need for intervention in school and professional guidance. Among the reasons for not completing the attended year, learning difficulties (30.4%) and loss of interest (28.5%) precede financial conditions (15.3%). The loss of interest is markedly male: 72.4% of cases correspond to boys and 27.6% to girls, while boys represent 59% of respondents.Among the declared reasons for dropout, repeated failures (20.3%) and dislike of school (16.5%) are the main ones, followed by difficulty adapting to the Cabo Verdean education system (10.5%). About 30% of respondents declared that they had not received guidance or support from the school. In terms of employment, the proportion of young people aged 15 to 24 unemployed and not in education or training (SDG indicator 8.6.1) decreased from 28.1% in 2022 to 23.1% in 2024, standing at 20.4% in 2025 — equivalent to 17,372 young people. The trend is clearly downward, but the indicator remains high and the gender gap is now residual (20.8% for girls and 20.0% for boys).Regarding girls, the pattern is reversed: the female advantage extends to higher education. In 2025/2026, accredited higher education institutions in Cabo Verde had 10,668 students, of whom 6,914 were female and 3,754 were male — about two-thirds women, corresponding to a parity index of 1.84. Added to this is the structural fragility of the technical track, a natural alternative for many young people who are currently leaving the system and a decisive space for diversifying girls' choices. In the 2020/2021 academic year, out of 34,037 students enrolled in secondary education, only 1,320 attended the technical track — 3.9% of the total. 4 And it is precisely there that the female advantage is inverted: girls represent 54.9% of those enrolled in the general track, but only 39.3% of those in the technical track (519 girls for 801 boys), a parity index of 0.65 that has remained stable since 2018/2019. The legal framework exists and is favorable, but there are still challenges in its operationalization: 5 the Basic Law enshrines the last two years of compulsory basic education as years of initiation of school guidance (from the 5th year of schooling - 2nd Cycle of EBO-), vocational and professional guidance, the secondary education curriculum provides for school and professional guidance offices, and the SGPAIE is responsible for ensuring students' access to this service. In practice, guidance remains fragmented, dependent on the availability of psychologists and school guidance counselors, and needs to adapt to the needs of Vocational Training and the productive sector. Period of assignment/services: 45 working days Proposal should be submitted directly in the portal no later than indicated deadline. Any request for clarification must be sent in writing via messaging functionality in the portal. 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