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'Broad Class - Listen to Learn': Interactive Radio Instruction Program

place Pakistan

A distance education program that combines radio broadcast with active learning to improve quality, equity & inclusiveness.

Broad Class - Listen to Learn, Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) program delivers student-centered instruction that covers basic skills in universal, cross-cutting themes and general & universal principles for early childhood education that makes it relevant to other cultural & geographical scenarios. Quantitative & qualitative information on participant achievement attests to the success of IRI.

HundrED 2020
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2020

HundrED 2019

Quality Education for all during Covid-19

Web presence

2012

Established

200K

Children

1

Countries
Updated
July 2018

About the innovation

What is Broad Class?

POWER99 Foundation is the pioneerof theInteractiveRadioInstruction program in Pakistan. Broad Class-Listen to Learnuses Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI),to improve quality, equity, and inclusiveness. The distance education system combines radio broadcasts with active learning and interactive teaching practices. IRI builds on local resources andknowledge, usingradio partners with schools in regions which have shortages of qualified teachers, school infrastructure, and learning materials. Evaluation of the program shows a positive impact onchildren's holisticdevelopment,attendance, andperformance, as well as improved teacher development and access toschool resources.

Radiois the main tool used for the 'Broad Class – Listen to Learn' program. Due to public broadcast and accessibility, it makes educational inputs accessible to a highly mobile population on a sustained basis. The program is combined with entertaining, relevant content effective in educating children, families, and communities, improvinginstruction quality and supporting Government efforts to attain SDGs and other goals.

Teachers’professionaldevelopmentis animportant component of the program. Teachers are trained and oriented on sound pedagogy, interactive teaching techniques, lesson planning and class management.BroadClass–Listen to Learn (IRI) provides instruction to teachers and students simultaneously.It explicitly takes into account the likelihood of poorly trained or even absent teachers and uses reliable, low-cost and flexible delivery models, such as broadcast radio or audio files pre-loaded onto MP3 players.

The content covers all basicuniversal cross-cutting themesbased on the general and universal principles for early childhood education, including literacy, numeracy, English and life skills. The daily 45 minutes broadcast includes thematic lessons with rhyme, a health tip of the day, and a teacher guide. Radio lessons guide teachers and students through activities, games, and exercises that teach carefully organized knowledge and skills. During short pauses built into radio scripts, teachers and students participate, reacting verbally and physically to questions and exercises posed by radio characters.Broad Class – Listen to Learn improves both quality and equity of education, with significant learning gains for all participants, including gains in girls' achievement, closing the rural-urban education gap, and increasing access to education for out-of-school learners.

The design of the program allows high interactivity amongst teachers, children and radio characters. The Broad Class – Listen to Learn program emphasizes links between educational domains and content areas. Scientific knowledge (dependent upon vocabulary building), cultural practices and arts taught through performing songs about letters or numbers in traditional styles. Inquiry, curiosity, and excitement about learning are built into each program.

The program features female role models that challenge gender stereotypes. For example, one character namedGulis a very outspoken girl, who loves learning and is not ashamed to express her ideas even when she is not sure of herself.Ameena Bibi, a radio teacher character in the program, takes joy in teaching primary school pupils’ basic literacy and numeracy. Dialogueand stories throughout the series encourage girls to be confident of their ability to learn and contribute meaningfully to society. Girls are deliberately chosen to answer certain questions. During radio lessons, teachers are instructed to select equal numbers of boys and girls to participate in activities. These strategieshelp establish a girl-friendly learning environment that encourages girls to enroll and complete primary school. This is particularly important for rural areas of Pakistan, where there are very low levels of female school enrollment, as well as low levels of retention and completion at all stages of education.

Due to public broadcast, wide accessibility and community acceptability, family and community participation supports growth and educational sustainability.Through the medium of radio, the approachreaches a 10 million shadow audience of community members, whose understanding of their children’s education is enhanced, enabling them to better support their children andengage in a dialogue around improving education, especially forgirls. Parents can listentolessons, for example,while shining shoes in the market, selling fruit and driving taxis. Parents listen at home, at work, or even attend school with theirchildren. Parents have thus become more aware of the educational content, and the ways that it is taught in school. Not only are they more inclined to send their children to school, but they have become more involved themselves. Many parents now support the school through the provision of resources and facilities. For instance, when one school had no water, the community arranged a water supply to the school from a nearby religious school.

The program has benefited more than200,000 children, educators,members of School Councils, parents and community members in different districts of all four provinces in Pakistan. 60%of program beneficiaries are girls and female educators.

The program has proved itself to be a revolution in thedevelopment sector for providing quality education through social behavioral change.

Some notable achievements of the program are as follows:



  • The Broad Class program is documented as innovative pedagogical approaches in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in the Asia-Pacific region (2016) to support ECCE practitioners, researchers, international development partners, and policy development professionals as they work and advocate for inclusive, quality early childhood care and education in various contexts





  • DW, program Global 3000, telecasted a report on Broad Class – Listen to Learnand declared it "a minor revolution in the field of education‟, in Pakistan.




  • BBC News (TV) telecasted a special story about the program and declared that it is the program which can help Pakistan in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).



Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Innovativeness

Broad Class uses distance radio as a way of addressing rural education disparities. The radio program supports teaching by making learning more fun for the children. This is something totally new in Pakistan’s classrooms. The program has benefited more than 100,000 children, educators, parents and community members in five different districts of three provinces in Pakistan. 60% of program beneficiaries are girls and female educators.

Impact

Formal and informal evaluations have demonstrated the success of the program. Academic outcomes were shown to be better than those in the control schools, the teacher-training aspect of the program is highly successful and parent satisfaction with the program is high.

Scalability

There is demand from federal, provincial and district governments for expansion of the program, which Broad Class is currently taking measures to develop.

Academy review results
High Impact
Low Scalability
High Impact
High Scalability
Low Impact
Low Scalability
Low Impact
High Scalability
Read more about our selection process

Implementation steps

STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATION

Signing of letter of understanding

Orientation of Education Department Officials and Heads

Baseline Survey

Initial and follow up Training of Teachers (40 hours)

Provide radio and teaching material to school

Airing of lessons (40 minutes daily and 60 hours in school year)

Ongoing technical support to teachers in the classroom

Ongoing monitoring of program implementation

24 hours help line phone service

Orientation/involvement of members of school councils/PTCs and communities during implementation

End-line Assessment

Spread of the innovation

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