Broadclass - Listen to Learn

Broadclass is a sustainable development project that reduces the educational inequalities of marginalized children in far flung areas by combining radio with interactive learning and capacity building. Radio lessons guide teacher and students through activities, games, and exercises that teach carefully organized knowledge and skills. Program is unique and specifically targets active learning, critical thinking and emotional development of children. Activities and role plays are specifically designed to actively engage children in age-appropriate activities seeking out information, being observant and curious, working through games and experiments together, building confidence and initiative in the learning process. Program greatly broadens access to unbiased global information, not only in local languages but especially in English. The following describe its success

Winning innovation STI Forum 2019 at UN.  http://webtv.un.org/search/par...

First award as the "Most Innovative Development Project." by GDN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_-sX98V0Hk

Winner of TESOL Mary Finocchiaro Award http://www.tesol.org/enhance-y..

Pakistan faces a critical education access and learning challenge about 22.6 million children overall 49% of population of girls are out of school and 34% percentage of student's dropout before completion of Primary. ASER Report 2018, revealed that around half of the Grade 5 students have not reached Grade 2 levels of learning Education is plagued with rote memorization,, limited teacher training Especially worrying is the lack of parental/ community participation & schools function in isolation.

In Pakistan, there are widespread concerns about poor academic achievement and school attendance, particularly that of girls and children living in rural areas. The education sector has weak governance and budget constraints, schools lack resources, and teachers are ill-trained and often lack accountability. These constraints are compounded by the entrenched use of pedagogical practices which are not suited to very young children: classes are teacher-led, have limited teacher-child interaction, and lessons focus on skill transfer, often through rote learning, with little space for children to explore ideas outside the realm of the text book. Gender inequities occur because parents of girls often do not favor sending their girls to schools because of accessibility and cultural barriers.

Beneficiaries of program have been mainly categorized on age and income group as follow:

a. Age group: children (4 to 15 years)

b. Teachers/administrators (19-59)

c. Occupation: most of the parents are farmers, skilled labor and daily wages workers by occupation

d. Gender: Male and female

e. Income level: Parents of the school children belong to low income group who are earning $ 4.47 per day for 8 hours of work.

f. Mostly Large and combined family system with average 5-9 member per family and mostly one person earning.

Program broadcast 75 lessons for KG, content based on National curriculum for ECE cross-cutting themes through Interactive Radio Instructions methodology. 

The program has benefited more than 80000 kindergarten students 60 percent girls’ age range 4- 5 both in rural and urban marginalized communities of Pakistan 

Broadclass program is documented as part of resource pack as one of the nine "innovative pedagogical approaches in Early childhood Care and Education in Asia Pacific Region (Australia, China, India, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Solomon Islands and Thailand).to support ECCE practitioners, researchers, international development partners, and policy development professionals.(UNESCO Bangkok and ARNEC).

Broadclass offers innovative, accessible and cost-effective solution that leverages from the ubiquitous radio footprint to reach out to maximum number of communities across Pakistan with the ultimate goal of improving school achievements. Program provides high-quality standardized lessons along with resource material to children attending formal and non formal institutes

The core element in the intervention is complemented by face-to-face 40 hours teacher training, and community support. An assessment mechanism is put in place and administered annually to measure student performance as the result of these interventions.

Workshops provide an intense learning and professional development opportunity for teachers along with ongoing support promotes critical capacity, dissemination, and sustainability. Program uses three "P's" (Presentation, Practice and Performance) lesson presentation; program enables teachers and children to interact in stimulating environments for learning and developmental growth. Scientific knowledge (dependent upon vocabulary building), cultural practices and arts are taught through performing on rhymes about letters/numbers in traditional styles. Inquiry, curiosity/ excitement about learning communicated in each program. Cooperative Learning teaching methods such as pair work, group work,  group competitions, individual work , use of question and answers, stories and songs  to deliver content. It incorporates some reading strategies like predict and draw, use of concrete and abstract objects in numeracy, and the use of locally available resources. With the geographical, environmental and energy-resource constraints in mind, special wooden radio sets with rechargeable dry batteries, built-in sound system, and  memory card options were locally designed and provided to classrooms .

To address issues of gender equity program has radio characters as female role models that challenged stereotypes .e.g. one character Gul is a very outspoken girl, who loves learning and is not ashamed to express her ideas even when she is not sure of herself. Ameena, radio teacher character in the program, takes joy in teaching. Dialogues and stories throughout the series encourage girls to be confident of their ability to learn and contribute meaningfully to society. These strategies help establish a girl-friendly learning environment that encourages girls to enroll and complete primary school.

Program team orient parents/ local community on program through special designed activities to encourage them  to support their children's education by giving them 'a helping hand' – draw, read and count with them from an early age; participate in plantation, making books or Family trees and radio broadcast their testimonials creating social impact.

Child-centered, holistic, culturally relevant approach.  

Broad class – Listen to Learn" is based on the principle that effective education for young children needs to be active, interactive and relevant to children and their families. In many areas in Pakistan, education methods are didactic and there is little adaptation for the learning styles of young learners. In the "Broad class – Listen to Learn" program, the learner is regarded as the principal driving force, with the teacher and radio characters as facilitators of the learning process. Many active learning approaches are employed, including cooperative learning activities, listening exercises, speaking activities, riddles, sound games and role playing.

The pedagogical techniques have been devised in such a way that they incorporate social, linguistic, cognitive, and emotional contexts. Program design ensures involvement of all stakeholders at every step of implementation to develop their better understanding and ensures continuity and sustainability.

Radio is the main tool used for "Broad Class – Listen to Learn" program. Special wooden radios with dry re-chargeable batteries, built-in sound system, and USB/memory card options are provided to classrooms. The program daily broadcast 45 minutes lessons With the approval of the Federal, Provincial and District Education Departments, and the cooperation of individual school leadership bodies, this allows FM radio to broadcast 152 days across the academic year, providing 2 introductory lessons and 75 lessons for each grade level.  Due to public broadcast and accessibility, it makes educational inputs accessible to a highly mobile population on a sustained basis. 

POWER99 Foundation has already piloted “Broad Class Listen to Learn” for marginalized communities of hardest to reach areas. The third party evaluation of program funded by UkAid has shown positive impact especially on girls’ education. Areas where Broad Class lessons have been aired improved literacy rates, net enrollment rates and reduced drop-out rates. Out-of-school children also benefit from school lessons which are based on universal curriculum. .

Teachers at public and low- cost private schools are more interactive and involved in the classroom by participating in various activities in the IRI lessons. They learn about different pedagogies and subject matter .92% of the teachers interviewed said that they were using teaching aids as part of their classroom practice

Depending on the literacy level of parents, they learn from their children and directly by listening to Broad Class lessons. Communities have benefited from job and business opportunities, such as the making of materials, books, radio set. This program is an example of adding economic value to the community but adding long term opportunities in the national and international areas.

In a bid to standardize the quality of education and access to valuable learning content, the IRI intervention purports to improve learning outcomes  at maximum possible low cost yielding both short-term and long-term socio-economic impact. In the short run, improved student grades, attendance and confidence levels are expected to be observed in the classroom. Educated children are more likely to be employed and contribute to the economy.

The program is currently serving 12,377 people.  In one year, the organization will be serving 127,834 people from all schools of one district. Concurrently, the program will be scaled up in other district every year which will increase number as 255,668 in year 2, 511,336 in year 3, 1,022,672 in year 4 and 2,787,106 in year 5.  In five years, the project will have directly benefited 4,704,616 people.

Our goals for next 12 months are Proliferation of Broad Class IRI methodology across schools in different provinces to turn it into an indispensable student-centered learning tool. Increasing dependence and reliance on Broad Class can be used as leverage for political buy-in to ensure continuity of the project and foster long-term commitments by governments.

The organization plans a two pronged strategy for the scale-up both horizontally and vertically. Horizontally will focus on expanding outreach to other geographic areas and development of more content for different subjects and grades and vertically turn the Broad Class program into a brand supported by different product lines and Gain financial autonomy by exploring alternate sources of revenue and reducing reliance on donor funding.

Pakistan has a democratically elected government. There is a heightened level of political unrest and the common perception is that it is a weak government. Law & Order and the corruption situation in the country are of concern. Any intervention  with the government creates the risk that the school may fail to deliver  due to changing priorities and local politics. There are frequent  changes of teachers, there is lack of qualified teachers, the enrollment  and retention is low in schools, there also frequent changes to the  curriculum and there is an expectation of self-management and  self-financing

Education is the most important sector for any country, especially a developing nation. Unfortunately, the government allocates  the least amount for education in their annual budget. The most significant impact of 18th amendment was the insertion of Article 25A, which created education  as a fundamental right. The 18th amendment and reallocation of funds to  the province have in certain areas created financial resource challenges  in certain schools.

Due to social and cultural barriers, it is very hard to communicate with  female education department officials, heads and teachers through male  staff. Mostly schools are scattered and hardest to reach.

It's also challenging to put a price tag on solutions such as Broad Class. Since it's an intangible offering, the benefits and value it offers to consumers and customers are difficult to quantify especially for corporate or advertisers.

Program has been designed to ensure involvement of local CBOs, education institutes, parents/communities to advocate them on program and importance of education to take ownership of the program for replication and continuation. The response to the pilot project has been very promising where the local government requested the project to continue airing for another six months free of charge (airtime). The local government intends to bear all operational costs thereafter. 

Program hired local staff including female and gave them orientation on the program and continuous support Standardized delivery of content is ensured through daily radio broadcast. Master Trainers and Education Officers pay regular visits to target classroom to provide technical assistance to teachers in program activities and provide feedback on their teaching practice.

Radio being the traditional medium has lot of acceptance and Audio lessons without graphics and images are less to face social or cultural barriers.

The content is publicly broadcast, accessible to all and therefore not seen as a threat. The children, teachers and community learn universal themes and implement these within the wider community. Program is an example of promoting global peace starting with promoting it in the community.

Program is working on the agenda of providing equal quality education opportunities to children especially girls.  More than 60% of program beneficiaries (heads of schools and teachers, students, members of school council and communities) are female. Through the medium of radio, the approach reaches shadow audience of community members, for creating awareness on their child education especially girls

The detail of staff is as under:

Full-time staff: 19

Part-time Consultants: 5

Volunteers: 7

POWER99's team of professionals is from various faiths, regions, and experiences. Organization has Years of professional working experience in designing creative learning module on education and life skills especially for school children according to their classes and have Professional experience with child-based learning project in communities. It works interactively and collaboratively with its audiences. This successfully empowers sustainable development and builds meaningful partnerships with all stakeholders.

POWER99 Foundation has edge by virtue of content based on universal themes, success stories, Customer loyalties to existing causes and focus areas including In-house facilities for production, broadcasting and interactive lesson creation and this is recognized by not only partners but also by national and International reporting organizations like

VOA telecast special report on Broadclass, a winning innovation in STI Forum 2019 https://www.urduvoa.com/a/view-360-Monday-may-27-president-trump-impeachment-/4934018.html

BBC News (TV) declared Broadclass as an innovative program that can help Pakistan in achieving the MDGs 2015

DW Global 3000, declared it "minor revolution in the field of education" in Pakistan.  https://www.facebook.com/broadclass/videos/840549059396551/ Aaj TV announced Broadclass an innovative solution for inclusive education. https://www.facebook.com/broadclass/videos/950760555042067

UNESCO lists it as the only project in Pakistan in 'WHAT'S WORKING?'(unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002351/235152E.pdf)

Broad class program has been profiled by CEI as the innovative program that is Expanding Access to Early Childhood Education Technology that uses traditional form of technology "radio" to help children from marginalized populations in Pakistan gain numeracy and literacy skills.

Russian TV stated that broad class is a new approach for overcoming obstacles and providing education to the poor by using radio https://arabic.rt.com/news/688905-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%83%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A7%D8%B7%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%84_%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%85_%D8%A7%D8%B0%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%A9

Since its inception, POWER99 Foundation has successfully implemented various educational programs funded by national and international organizations and working closely with including local, regional and provincial education departments.

POWER99 foundation currently has two partners:

• Global Development Network (GDN) "Broad Class- Listen to Learn" Interactive Radio Instruction Program in 187 Classrooms (KG – Grade II) of public schools in Abbottabad.

OUTPUTS:

Capacity building of 240 heads/teachers of partner schools

Improved learning outcomes for children in urban and rural areas, 

Improved teaching practices and learning environment in classrooms; 

Improved attendance and enrollment.

Increased participation of parents, members of School Councils/communities in school activities.

• Foundation for Open Society Institute (FOSI)"Broad Class- Listen to Learn" Interactive Radio Instruction Program in 20 Classrooms (KG – Grade I) of public schools in Battagram district (KP) and Jamshoro district (Sindh).

OUTPUTS:

Enhanced capacity of 100 teachers on interactive teaching methods

Improved student learning outcomes 

Improved community/parents' engagement with school

Broadclass Listen to Learn brand embodies a range of product lines that are built around quality educational material. We will explore different delivery mechanisms such as an online resource or web portal where children and parents can listen to 5-minute audio podcasts. Full lesson plans can be made accessible through subscriptions. Short one-minute educational audio packages can be access via an IVR system or SMS. This idea can evolve into a mobile app in the long-term that can be monetized via ad serving to keep the cost free. We'll also look into partnering with publishing houses and teacher training institutes to make the content either available for teachers for a low-fee or subsidize the running costs with third-party partnerships and thus make the reach the biggest audience

Developing interactive learning methodologies in collaboration with private schools and replicating them on other audio/visual mediums. IRI interventions can also incorporate other social issues and technical vocational education and training (TVET) programs which can help communities with employment.

There are many opportunities for related diversification that can expand the appeal of the Broad Class brand. By increasing the delivery vehicles the utility of the solution can be extended to a broader set of target audiences

The core IRI intervention for education will remain as one of the key highlights of the offering and can be used to cross sell other product lines. Customers range from donors and private entities to individuals and philanthropists. 

Broad Class can be an invaluable training and learning tool not only for conventional primary and secondary education but also for a broad set of social issues. Broad Class can truly serve as an effective tool for training and awareness in remote areas where conventional resource mobilization is a challenge. Covering such areas immensely enhances the appeal of Broad Class interventions, especially in a traditional donor-funded model. The same holds true in the private sector where corporate are carrying out different CSR campaigns focusing on various development challenges such as environment, health. Collaborate with renowned publishers and retailers to distribute audio enhanced textbooks on different subjects. Government entities that publish textbooks can also be approached for potential partnerships to take advantage of their extensive distribution network 

Including other subjects in the Broad Class repertoire will make the intervention more appealing to different stakeholders.

Broad Class is a cost effective sustainable innovation working in several communities across Pakistan, we are looking to scale significantly, focusing on increased efficiency. Solve can help us by connecting with relevant stakeholders (funding organizations, telecommunication industry authority, development partners, Mobile manufactures and Multinationals / Private Sector ) 

Our challenges are financial and networking as the government decision-making apparatus is laced with bureaucracy, creating hurdles and delays. This causes impediments in program buy-in and timelines secondly shifting donor focus and financing but the organization have the requisite domain expertise and technical capabilities to deliver end-to-end IRI solutions all over Pakistan. We can build on our strength to develop content around other social issues and training domains to expand our reach to millions.

• Funding organizations,
• telecommunication industry authority,
• development partners,
• Mobile manufactures  
• Multinationals / Private Sector
• Experts for content development support

Broadclass -  Listen to Learn brand embodies a range of product lines that are built around quality educational material. We are exploring many other options, from smart content, intelligent tutoring to Virtual Facilitators and Learning Environments 

Education is a domain largely ruled by human-to-human interaction but integration of AI will provide plenty of areas where AI's inherent strengths will help fill high-need "gaps" in learning and teaching. There is evidence to support the idea that both intelligent systems and humans are needed to manage different aspects of students' academic and social competencies.

The AI Innovation prize will likely not replace Broadclass characters but will serve as an invaluable extension of the human expert, helping teachers to more effectively meet the diverse needs of many students simultaneously.

Broadclass program will initiate “Smart content" creation, from already digitized guides of textbooks to customization learning digital interfaces, to condense teachers guided into useful tool for exam preparation 

Broadclass program can utilize AI's ability to analyze large amounts of data in real-time (a student's performance in a particular skill across subjects over the course of a year, for example) and that will automatically provide new content or specified learning parameters, helps meet students' need for continual, targeted practice and feedback   In the advance stage AI will allow Broadclass partner teachers to better understand student performance  to help shape a next generation of more personalized learning and responsive teaching on an ongoing basis.

In Pakistan, 22.5 million children are out of school and 51% are girls .Gender inequities occur because parents often do not favor sending their girls to schools because of accessibility and cultural barriers Schools are not close to home. Many parents worry about girls travelling long distances on their own. And also prefer to have daughters taught by women.

Prize will support us to reach more women and girls as the program design ensures   60% partners are female. To address issues of gender equity, the program focused on choosing radio characters as female role models that challenged stereotypes. E.g. one character named Gul is a very outspoken girl, who loves learning and is not ashamed to express her ideas even when she is not sure of herself .Dialogues and stories throughout the series encourage girls to be confident of their ability to learn and contribute meaningfully to society. These strategies help establish a girl-friendly learning environment that encourages girls to enroll and complete primary school.

Teachers are trained on long-life low-cost teaching techniques with stress on   materials relevant to the girl's background and in the local language. The program develops the skills, information and self-confidence of the female teachers to be more productive at work and better paid

Communities are sensitized on the importance of quality education and to support their children's education by giving them 'a helping hand. These meetings often take an advocacy role, and focus on the importance of attendance and girl's education.

Proliferation of Broadclass IRI methodology across schools in different provinces with more than 100,000 beneficiaries in Pakistan also provides access to more than 10 million people as indirect beneficiaries because it is publicly broadcast. There is a huge bulk of schools, teachers, children and community data, photos, audio and video clips of all stakeholders collected during the program follow up and monitoring process.

Most of the Power99 projects areas have social and culture sensitivities and barriers especially working with girls there are risks as well as benefits to using big data. Privacy is one of the biggest issues, given the volume of data that is being collected. Accuracy and reliability are also issues, especially when we decide to make important decisions based on the data. Another challenge is that it's difficult for everyone involved to envision either the benefits or the harms inherent in a use of big data, we do collect a lot of data, but we retain very limited rights to use that data

The prize will enable us to design strategy and develop a system for minimizing the risks (physically, psychologically and socially) to store and utilize data with respecting the dignity of the participants. It will enable us to develop scientific work flow of data that can be easily distributed and shared within the organization with editorial guidance.  Ethical use of data not only maximizes the benefits to the program participants by giving it boost through digital platform but will also enhance the program credibility and value.