Radio’s role in enhancing education

UNESCO In 2012, in order to highlight the power of radio as a platform for education and freedom of expression and its vital role in responding to crises and disasters, called to celebrate 13 February each year, a World radio Day.

World Radio Day — a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves. As radio continues to evolve in the digital age, it remains the medium that reaches the widest audience worldwide.

Radio functions as an effective auditory instrument for communication. It also plays an important role in education. It is not only informs, but also inspires human being for learning more and more. It not only includes values and virtues, but also creates attitudes, interests and appreciation of human life. It can cover a very wide area at the same time.

Radio has immense values, particularly in a developing countries, where constraints of finance, efficient teachers, suitable equipment and appliances adversely affect educational planning and administration.

Radio plays a significant part in expansion as well as qualitative improvement of education, especially in remote and inaccessible areas, where expansion of education has faced several difficulties. There has been a growing awareness about the inadequacy of the traditional or formal system of education not only for expansion, but also for improving the standards of education. The need for alternative mass-media is gradually felt along- with non-formal system of education.

The use of radio for educational purposes began with the BBC’s schools broadcasting services as far back as in 1924. It has in that time been used in many various ways. Its uses comprise school broadcasting, informal general education, social action programming and adult basic education and literacy.The first school broadcast in India were commissioned in 1937, and regular broadcasts began in 1938 from All India Radio (AIR) in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Madras. Subsequently, various educational radio projects over AIR have been carried out. The primary channels of AIR continue their school broadcasts, but by and large these have tended to be random, one-way information-communication programmes, or didactic and fairly dull lessons in which the teacher talks and students listen. They have not concerned themselves with the actual quality of classroom teaching and learning. Nor have they been held accountable for the achievement of specific learning objectives. This is largely the reason why radio fell into disrepute as an education technology.

In Australia, radio has been used for direct teaching, whereby radio schools are used to connect children in secluded farmsteads in the outback together with a teacher sited many hundred miles away. Distance teaching universities frequently employ radio for its advertising and enrolment value, as well as for teaching. The Open University in Britain uses this system more often for discussion of course materials, alternative viewpoints to those contained in the printed materials, source material for analysis and for performance e.g. dramatization literature, etc.

Radio has been used lengthily as an educational medium in developing countries. The radio has supported educational programs in a wide range of subject area and in many different countries.

Radio like other available instruments and channels of communication and social action could be used to assist put across essential knowledge and enlighten and educate people on social issues. In addition radio can be mobilised to comprehend the potential towards meeting basic education for all.

Radio is an effectual system for delivery of education to larger numbers of people. In facilitates information exchange at the community level, acting as a “community telephone”. Radio plays a vital educational role as the sole medium for formal and non-formal education.