By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Some sections of the public have called on government and educations authorities to uphold the school broadcast programme that is being implemented due to the Ebola outbreak in the country.
The disease, which is highly contagious and had killed more than 900 people May, had forced government schools, colleges and private learning institutions to close down indefinitely.
Ola French, who worked between 1970 and 1980 as senior education officer at the ministry of education, said government should sustain the broadcast system because “it was one of the things that made learning very effective in those days.”
She said the system had long existed in the country and that it was supplementary to what obtained in the classrooms.
French, over 70 now, said it was laudable that government had reintroduced the method of teaching on radio and television because that would not allow gap in learning process.
However, she said that authorities had not done enough sensitisation about the programme and “that is making people oblivious of its significance. Like they do about Ebola, let them go from one community to another”. She added that government needed to use old teachers and to employ only trained and qualified ones to do the broadcast teaching.
French said she had listened to broadcasts and “though the contents are good but some pronunciations are horrible.”
Dan Adgivon, 84, who had worked for 10 years at education ministry in the 1970s, said he had been trained by the British Broadcasting Corporation to broadcast and produce school programmes in the country.
He said the broadcast system was effective because government had committed itself to it. He noted that although the programme had had some positive effects on learning, there were challenges.
“I therefore want to draw the attention of the present education ministry to them”, he said, adding that the British government had provided radio sets but teachers had diverted them for their personal uses. He claimed that schools had failed to repair the radios and had complained about buying batteries.
Adgivon said they had also been challenged by teachers’ failure to mobilise and prepare students for the programme. He said wrong teachers had also been employed.
Coordinator of the present school broadcast programme, Sylvester Meheux, said the broadcast learning was re-established as an emergency teaching programme by the ministry of education.
He said they needed more teachers to add to the “30 seasoned professional teachers that we have got from Freetown,” adding that those teachers had only answered to a national call from the minister of education.
Meheux, who doubles as head of the council of principals in the country, said broadcast scripts were being edited before presentation and that they had arrangements with the Independent Radio Network (IRN) that partnered with 41 radio stations across the country.
“The programme is successful because of the quality of presentation and the responses we are getting from students”, said Meheux, adding that they had done radio sensitisation that would reach most communities in the country.
“Parents are now buying more transistor radio set for the programme”, he said.
Meheux said the education ministry and its partners were trying to supply radio sets to schools but government would not be able to provide TV sets. He said they expected at least 90% success and would want to sustain the programme after Ebola.
Musa Koroma, who trades in portable transistor radio sets on Regent Road in Freetown, said “Generally, the Ebola outbreak has increased sales in radios because people now want to know what’s happening in the country”.
Fatmata Kamara at Salad Ground in the Freetown central business district said “I feel it’s not bad because the children will get something out of it, but how much? Even when teachers are in front of them they hardly understand what they are taught”.
Ramatu Sesay on Dougan Street said: “I listen with to the programme with my child and I take notes and later explain to her. Parents need to be monitoring their children for effective learning. It will be good if the programme continues”.
Andrew Favour Kamara, a class 6 pupil at the Providence International School, saidhe understood what was being taught but sometimes they came too fast for his comprehension. He said he wanted the programme to be upheld.
(C) Politico 21/10/14
