Establishment of a Panel for The Provision of Online Exam Revision and Study Support

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1. At a glance

2. Scope of Work

The Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) sought to establish a panel of providers for online exam revision and study support services. This procurement aims to source qualified and competent service providers to offer a range of online resources and tools to assist students in their learning journey. The services are intended for CETB's post-primary schools and Youthreach centres. The contracting authority reserves the right to operate outside the panel if it offers greater value for money.

The scope of services includes:

• Online Platform: A platform providing access to:
• All State Exam questions by topic.
• All state exam papers by year.
• All sample exam questions by topic.
• All sample exams in original format.
• All marking schemes.
• Tools for Educators and Students:
• A tool for teachers and/or students to create and take class tests and quizzes.
• Revision Resources:
• Revision tools including, but not limited to, subject notes, videos, exemplars, quizzes, discussion forums, and links to relevant websites.
• Language Availability: Services must be available through the medium of Irish and English.
• Technical and Customer Support: Full technical and customer service support for each individual user, without requiring intervention from schools or the Contracting Authority to resolve issues.
• Child Protection: The online platform must be secure, with no risk of child protection issues for students under eighteen years.
• Availability: The service must be available immediately and throughout each academic year for individual students and teachers across CETB schools and centres.
• Bulk Provision: Ability to provide bulk provision or transfer soft copies of online exam and study resources for student devices.
• Curriculum Suitability: Proposed exam revision and study support must be suitable for the curriculum.
• Pricing Differentiation: Pricing must include any differentiation for DEIS schools and discounts for bulk accounts (e.g., cost for 500 accounts, 1000 accounts).
• Accessibility: The online system must comply with WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements.
• Data Protection: Compliance with Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2003, and GDPR.

3. Background & buyer context

The Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) is a statutory provider of education and training services across Cork City and County. Established under the Education and Training Boards Act 2013, CETB is responsible for a comprehensive range of educational programmes, including primary, post-primary, further education, apprenticeships, and adult and community education. CETB operates 24 post-primary schools and colleges, multiple further education and training centres, and other educational facilities. This procurement is driven by the need to provide effective online exam revision and study support to its students, aligning with broader educational service provision objectives. The panel approach is adopted to leverage efficiencies and maximise cost savings over the panel's duration. Funding for services procured under this panel is reliant on Department of Education and Youth (DEY) and SOLAS budget allocations.

4. Eligibility & selection criteria

• Turnover requirement: Combined turnover relating to the specified service must have exceeded €100,000 for each of the past three years (2022, 2023, 2024).
• Insurance: Commitment to put the following levels in place if successful:
• Employers Liability: €13,000,000
• Public Liability: €6,500,000
• Product Liability: €6,500,000
• Cyber Liability: €1,000,000
• Notation of Indemnity to Cork ETB.
• Certifications: Not specified for this tender.
• Past experience: Applicants will be assessed on previous relevant experience, including delivering comparable online exam revision and study support services to other Education and Training Boards (ETBs) and/or equivalent education providers, covering the current education curriculum.
• Personnel: Not specified for this tender.
• Geographic / facility constraints: Services are for Cork ETB schools and centres across Cork City and County. Data processing and storage location requirements are detailed in the Data Protection Questionnaire (Appendix 1).

5. Award criteria & scoring

This tender is for the establishment of a panel, not the direct award of a contract. The evaluation for admittance to the panel is based on meeting selection criteria. The contracting authority will select providers for individual contracts from the panel based on the following criteria:

Criterion Weight (%) Sub-criteria