Girl Education Broadcast

The Luapula region of Zambia is Characterized by high girl school drop out rate  in the country( Zambia). This has resulted in high illiteracy  among girls and women. The consequence of this low literacy levels is poor health and nutrition among the population.

Reaching out to the target group by using local radio broadcast to provide education on the value and relationship of education to health and nutrition can be a more reliable and easier technology to use in the quest to encourage as many girls as possible to go back to school.

Radio education covers a wider target population. and if well planned can be a very good pedagogy in encouraging girls and women to realize the value of education which would consequently help alleviate poverty and disease.

The Luapula province of Zambia with an average population of 3million people is one of the provinces in the country with the lowest literacy levels among women which can fall way below 20%. This has resulted significantly on high disease burden and extreme poverty which could be avoided if people are equipped with based  problem solving skills through education.

Teenage  pregnancy, early marriages, HIV and AIDS and Malnutrition has characterized the Luapula region of Zambia. Most of the deaths as a result of the above can be avoided if the majority of the girls and women get the basic education through some formal education. However, education of girls is not prioritized in this part of the country where marriage and child bearing is regarded as a prestige. Parents will prefer marrying off a child and benefit from bride prices than leave the girl child in school which is regarded as a waste of time and money.

This attitude has resulted in high illiteracy levels among girls and women in this part of the country which consequently, has resulted into health  and nutrition related diseases, high poverty levels and high motility of infants.

Our Solution works by providing sensitizations radio programs using education, agriculture and health personnel on various researched misconceptions in the communities. 

The sensitization uses Radio broadcast because communities have a lot of confidence on what they hear on radio and currently local radios are covering almost every remote parts of the province.

Misconceptions about the value of education, health and nutrition and agricultural practices can therefore be addressed with a view promote girl education in the region. Well planned radio broadcast using a group of experts from the field of education, health and agriculture are involved to provide expert and pedagogical advise on the delivery of a curriculum frame.

The solution aims at empowering the girls and women with basic scientific literacy on a number of health and nutrition issues so that disease burden can be minimized and it also sensitizes them on the value of school education by helping the girls and women fight their own misconceptions.

The target group will be engaged in the radio discussions by well planned phone live programs. Community and civic leaders will be involved in discussing civic issues, basic human rights and opportunities available through school education. Role models will be involved in providing encouragement to girls and women on the value of school education.

The solution will directly address the health and nutrition needs of the communities through education and reduce attrition rate of girls in schools.

Empowering the population with knowledge is one of the effective ways in which poverty and disease can be eliminated among the population. The education broadcast can easily reach a large population of the community and a well structured curriculum can easily sensitize the girls and women on the value of education and help reduce attrition rate.

This will consequently increase literacy levels and help reduce disease burden associated to health literacy.

Radio Broadcast involving a well structured curriculum on misconceptions is an innovative approach to education and sensitization because its curriculum focus is breaking the well researched misconceptions of the Luapula province Communities on the value of girl education. It addresses a number of issues which can statistically reduce levels of disease burden in the region as well as encourage girls and women to take up formal education.

Inclusion of stake holders in health, education, agriculture and civic leaders has a multisector approach to knowledge dissemination.

This education broadcast uses local radio station which has become popular and regarded as a more reliable source of information by the majority rural population.

It involve buying airtime on a local radio and engage expert volunteers is providing interactive lessons on a number of misconceptions related to  education and scientific literacy in the local communities.

Radio has been proved to be a useful tool for the provision of many forms information to the general public in the shortest possible time. The following link gives various forms in which radio can be used including scientific education.https://www.preservearticles.com/education/role-of-radio-in-education/4734

Radio broadcasting is one of the greatest educational tools which has ever been placed at the disposal of civilized man. It is an instantaneous, universal means of communication. It is not a new art, but is a means of multiplying the efficiency of oral communication just as the printing press multiplied the effectiveness of the written word. In addition to that, it has certain decided advantages over the printed page which it in part supplants and in part supplements” (Tyler, 1935. p.115).

Radio being the most affordable and easy used technology accessed on most mobile phones is a great tool in affording interactive education forum through phone calls and text messages.

We are employing a Conceptual change Theory. We believe that the limitation to learning and education existing in our communities is because of the existing of alternative and traditional models in our target population. 

 By researching and understanding this model, an alternative model can be created which can fight the existing ones and bring new insights in peoples minds and approach to cope with the dynamics of the world.

Using a more accessible media is seen to be the best approach to provide interactive forum where the target population can be helped to create new schema of knowledge, skills and values. 

Currently serving approximately 1million people in its pilot stage the project intended to cover 3million people in the near future and the whole country of 18million people in the long term.

The broadcast will shift from local radius to regional and national coverage respectively to ensure the whole country gets the message on the misconceptions on education and help fight them. This is because on average the whole population of the country share the same misconceptions.

Stating with a local broadcast and using local volunteers already available in the pilot, we intend to scale up the broadcast to the national media which will include live telecast of misconceptions on girl educations and scientific literacy. 

This will engage experts in national curriculum designers and collaboration with other partners supporting girl education to provide national guidance on the value of girl and women education.

Gender activists will be engaged in providing support to women and girl empowerment through active and interactive provision of information through the most available radio and television networks.

Financial barriers may limit the scaling up of the broadcast from region to national because this involves movements, airtime purchase and volunteers logistical arrangements.

Financial Barriers are currently handled with members contributions, and by using a community Church channel which offers the experts almost free but limited airtime.

The organization plans to engage into some income generation activities to generate resources for the sustenance and continuity of the programme

The interim board has ten people ( All part Time)

2 curriculum experts

2 medical personnel's

1 nutritionist

1 agriculturist

1 civic leader

3 committee members

We have the technical knowledge of education and a through ethnographic understating of the region.

We have the relevant research skills, professionals in education, health and nutrition as well as agriculture. we have communications and facilitation skills and we have pedagogy experts.

The team is therefore skilled enough to motivate the general population on the value of school education by breaking the identified misconceptions.

We are partnering with the Ministry of Education for the national curriculum guidelines, Ministry of Health for health and nutrition technical advise and the ministry of agriculture for agricultural practices education.

We focus on answering four questions:

1. who helps us

2. how do we do our broadcast

3. what do we broadcast

4. how do we get attention

This questions brings on board content service provider, frequency and tower providers and infrastructure.

The questions also addresses advertisement modes.

We currently have only one means of raising funds and that is through donations but we plan to venture into fund raising business ventures to scale up our broadcasting potential.

we are applying to solve to help us meet the financial obligations in bringing the broadcast to the intended population timely

With adequate financial services our team can easily and frequently air the planned broadcasts and periodically monitor and survey the response levels from the grassroot

We welcome partners that are supporting girl education responses through material and technical support.

Statistically evident STEM education had been a boy education and this has resulted into very few women participation in STEM jobs country wide. A Sensitization broadcast in STEM equality coupled by some scholarship of deserving girls in this field can promote change of mindset and bridge the gap now existing in STEM education.