Radio teaching is Uganda's new COVID-19 gem

Jun 24, 2020

On Monday, while updating the nation on matters regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) and the lockdown relaxation, president Yoweri Museveni said the country should be patient about the opening of schools.

EDUCATION   COVID-19

Ugandans have risen to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in numerous ways. The number of hand sanitizer manufacturers has gone up and now, radio teaching has emerged as a learning solution. 

Fred Wananda, one of the parents with four children all in primary says, instead of children seating at home idle, learning on radios could work. 

According to Wananda, radios are a cheap alternative since they are easy to operate and to maintain.

"All I need are the dry cells. I will spare a room for the children to study," he said.

Listenership figures also show that radio is the most popular medium in Uganda. (Photo by Jimmy Outa)


His only worry is that his four children are in different classes so in case classes are at the same time, it will be hard for him to allocate who should use the radio first. When it comes to issues of subjects that need calculations, Wananda wondered how learners will be doing it.

Another parent who has three children said the concentration of the children on the radio is very difficult since he lives in a rented house with many children and of which every parent has their priority.

Another parent suggested the need to have trained people to help the children while listening to the radios.

Wananda revealed that as an illiterate parent, he won't be of help to the children when they do not understand what the teacher is teaching on the radio. "We need people who are trained to help the children as they are listening to radio teaching," she said.

Ismail Mulindwa, the director of basic education in the ministry of education and sports said the ministry is going to provide the materials that are going to be aired on radio.

According to Mulindwa, there will also be teachers who are to facilitate these lessons on radio and also there will be a timetable that will be followed by the various radio stations that will be facilitating the learning program.

He said the government requests parents to use the radios purposely for learning after they are provided. 

"Parents should endeavour to guide and supervise their children during the lessons," Mulindwa emphasized. 

Government requests parents to use the radios purposely for learning after they are provided. (Photo by Jimmy Outa)


"The radios will be required to air out adverts on which time various lessons will be aired out such that the parents remind their children," Mulindwa said.

Mulindwa appealed to the general public to support this programme because it is for the good of their children promising that the program will be effective.

With up to 15 million Ugandan learners now seated at home, could radios be the solution?

On Monday, while updating the nation on matters regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) and the lockdown relaxation, president Yoweri Museveni said the country should be patient about the opening of schools.

The president said that in the meantime, the government is going to launch a long-distance education programme, certainly through radios.

"We are going to give free radio-sets to all the homesteads. Radios will soon be distributed. Also, printed educational materials will be provided. I was personally in favour of the free TV sets per village for the learners," he said.

However, the president said that scientists are studying this on account of avoiding crowding by the learners in the villages, which may be a source of spreading the disease. "They said the radio-set was better because it was per household.  It is individual home-stead based," he revealed.

Radios

According to the Uganda Media Landscape Report in February 2019, Uganda has a diverse media sector with nearly 300 licensed radio stations and 30 (free to air) TV stations. The report indicates that radio is a more popular medium than TV mainly due to poverty and lack of electricity.

Listenership figures also show that radio is the most popular medium in Uganda. People can listen to the radio at home, at their friends, relatives or neighbours, and work.

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