The United Nations International Children’s fund, UNICEF says, Over 1.5million learners have been reached with foundational numeracy and literacy skills through 2300 Radio learning hubs in North-West region of Nigeria.
UNICEF Chief of Education Nigeria, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan, made this known in Abuja while speaking on the 2023 World Radio Day and the significance of Radio on education of children across Nigeria.
According to Panday, a total number of 137000 learners living in areas with difficulties and affected by insurgents in North west and North-Eastern region of Nigeria were also reached during the radio lessons program of the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Together with other innovative solutions like the Nigeria Learning Passport, radio-based education is helping to build a more resilient education system in Nigeria.
Radio-based education programmes have reached more than 1.5 million children in northwest Nigeria.#WorldRadioDay pic.twitter.com/VXFOHSwSd0
— UNICEF Nigeria (@UNICEF_Nigeria) February 13, 2023
When #COVID19 shuttered schools, radio was used to support education in the hardest-to-reach areas. 2,300 radio learning hubs were established in northwest Nigeria alone!
UNICEF continues to use radio to ensure that every child can learn, no matter where they are.#WorldRadioDay pic.twitter.com/ivivgRXIsT
— UNICEF Nigeria (@UNICEF_Nigeria) February 13, 2023
The UNICEF Chief of Education emphasised that Radio is an absolutely powerful medium that facilitates learning and ensure continuance of learning.
She stated that UNICEF has engaged Radio very successfully especially where the nation was facing critical insecurity challenges.
“We have good evidence of how radio can be used to make sure learning continues but more than that we have got a huge Out of School children in Nigeria, 1 out of 3children are out of school in Nigeria also 3 out of 4 children in basic education cannot read for meaning or solve simple math problems.
“In the short medium term why we try to fix up the school infrastructure, we will not be able to get all children in formal schooling and this does not mean learning should not take place, we have engage radio and we have evidence of how Television, Radio, Digital learning and community learning hubs where children learn effectively,” Saadhna added.
Global Agencies & Radio
The UNICEF Chief of Education called for partnerships with Radio media agencies emphasising the need to formalise relations.
Saadhna added that the use of radio for enhancement of education should be on a continuous basis .
“The use of radio for education should not only be in Northeast every radio station should be involved, every radio station should dedicate their time to reach out to children who cannot make their way into formal school.
“The two biggest challenges in the basic education are the challenges of Out of School and literacy learning issues with jingles we have been able to engage in conveying messages to communities on why it is important for children to go to school.
“We need all radio stations to be involved in tackling the out of school issue the engagement of radio stations should not just be in Borno, Kebbi, Zamfara etc but in all the 36 states.”
Engagement Of Radio For Education
According to Paandhay, UNICEF develops content together with media houses, state Universal Basic Education Boards SUBEBs, while is aired on radio stations.
He added that following the didactic nature of radio as a medium, which does not give chance to interaction between learners and teachers, hence UNICEF developed interactive radio which creates opportunity for trained community volunteers to mediate between learners and the content.
“We developed what we call interactive radio ,we trained community volunteer teachers so that learners sit around solar powered radio.”
Radio Stations in Nigeria have been tasked to dedicate airtime on their airwaves to reach out to children who cannot make their ways into formal schools.
2023 World Radio Day :
Speaking on the theme of the 2023 World Radio Day, Panday-Soobrayan said Radio is relevant to education as education focuses on peace. “We know that an educated nation is a peaceful nation.”
The theme of the 2023 World Radio Day is: “Radio and Peace.”
