Radio Education Initiative

Overview

Due to the spread of COVID-19, more than 31.000 schools with an overall number of 6 million students in Cameroon were closed (UNSDG, 2020). Scholars believe that such measures, though necessary, but damaging, as in the long run, the economic and educational situation may have catastrophic consequences for the world in the post covid 19 era, and Cameroon, particularly. The questions that were discussed at the governmental level are: how to ensure continuity of education, how to eliminate or at least not worsen the existing inequalities and how to arrange the exam stage so students could proceed to the next level of their academic path. Due to the considerable lack of digital devices and equipment, most of the schools in Cameroon could not afford distance learning on the Internet, on such platforms like Skype or Zoom, so they had to implement Radio Education, meaning oral lectures and training for children. 

Like many African countries, Cameroon is aimed to develop into an emerging nation in 2035 by setting policies and millennial goals (Teke, C., 2012). The government has prioritized Information Communication Technologies (ICT) development in the domain of economy, culture, social and education in all state sectors, with specifical extraction on Information Communication Technologies in the education domain (Teke, C., 2012). The radio programme has been seen as one of the channels to achieve overall development. According to the report by Global Information Society Watch in 2008, ‘radio penetration is relatively high [in Cameroon], with 75% of urban homes and 55.1% of rural ones owning a radio’ (APC, Hivos and ITeM, 2008). Listening to the radio in three languages (English, French and local languages) is a popular casual activity in families in Cameroon (APC, Hivos and ITeM, 2008). Educational radio programming can be an ideal tool to keep children engaged in academics and implement distance learning for those in disadvantageous areas as radio can span great distances and reach a mass audience, and more importantly, it can jump the literacy barrier and act as a channel for mass education (Ekaney, 2012; Duby, 1990). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, who set up multi-collaborations with third world countries also, stated that ‘the use of radio and television broadcast as distance learning solutions is a powerful way to bridge the digital divide in the education sector and reach the most marginalized learners’ (“Learning through radio and television in the time of COVID-19”, 2020). Previous research and studies have focused on how the radio programme developed in recent years. However, the application of radio is rarely studied directly on how Cameroonians use the radio and how radio platforms are used as educational tools. 

Radio Education

Many obstacles are faced by the Cameroonians on receiving educational radio programmes. Rural children still suffered regional disparities in receiving information due to the uneven distribution of radio stations. The content of the radio programme produced by some private radio stations is problematic and students in the community are struggling in receiving academic base content from the community radio programme. 

Firstly, Our recommendation is that the educational radio’s content should be designed according to each area’s vernacular in Cameroon. According to the data, only 15% of the population in Cameroon can understand English or French, and most rural people are learning colonial languages that have no similarity to their vernaculars, even many failed to learn colonial languages due to a lack of teachers. Under this situation, radio broadcasting is a good way for the government to ensure all Cameroonians as bilingual learners (Ekaney, 2012). This idea is worth considering when designing classes because it is impossible for us to teach children effectively and efficiently if we use some languages these children cannot understand. Therefore, Cameroon’s educational radio program should consider the use of language carefully. 

Secondly, educational radio content can be expressed through storytelling. Many studies have been conducted and found the effectiveness of the use of storytelling as a teaching methodology (Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). Specifically, students are able to have enhanced experiences with gaining knowledge because descriptive oral language can help children to have a more comprehensive understanding (Miller & Pennycuff, 2008). That is to say, storytelling will make the learning process easier for children if we use storytelling in educational radio.  

Besides the content of radio education, it is also important to consider the use of pauses and music in the teaching process. As mentioned by Duby (1990), educational radio’s pauses and accompanying instruction can be interpreted as ‘concealed information’ and ‘feedback’. For example, ‘Now listen and answer aloud…(pause)...the correct answer is…’(Duby, 1990, p. 156). By using pauses wisely, the educational radio could be even more interactive because it leaves time for students to interact. Moreover, the use of music in educational radio should also be considered by producers. Music could be a sound effect to let learners know of the change of time and subject, which could make the content more organized. As mentioned by Bukhari (1997), the purposes of using sound include, “establish the locale of setting, direct the audience attention by the emphasis on a particular sound, establish time and mood, signify entrances and exits, serve as a transition between the changes of time and place, create unrealistic effects” (p. 41). Even though the disadvantage of using educational radio is that it is an inherently one-way medium with both limitations and possibilities on interactions, these wisely designed pauses and music could be a way for students to interact with radio content more efficiently. 

Lastly, it is worth considering how to make education radio individualized. Considering students will be active learners in this process without teachers’ supervision, educational radio programs should in themselves promote learner-centered approaches (Leigh, 1995). In the learner-centered environment, content should digitally be constructed and customized to meet learners’ needs, including their dynamic and changing roles from novice to expert (Mccombs & Vakili, 2005). However, as a one-way communication medium, broadcasters and producers are in charge of educational radio’s pace, which means it is hard to gauge learners’ knowledge and learning process (Berman, 2008). Even though it is hard to realize, it does not mean it is impossible. In the future, educational radio developers could consider how to integrate learning and strategies to help learners become more self-directed. Developers also should try to assign some pre-assessments and ongoing assessments of students’ background knowledge in certain accessible areas, so developers can adjust educational radio content accordingly (Mccombs & Vakili, 2005).