We have raised education standard through radio school programme – Enugu Commissioner
Enugu state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uche Eze, said his ministry has used the ‘Radio School’ programme of South Saharan Social Development Organisation (SSDO) to improve the standard of education in the state.
Speaking on Wednesday during a town hall meeting in Enugu, Eze said that preliminary reports suggested improved learning by students who were the target audience since the programme started in September. The radio school programme involves the broadcast of selected subjects by trained and experienced teachers while the target students listen and direct questions to their class teachers. The commissioner, who was represented by the Director of Schools in the ministry, Mr. Frank Okoro, said that the state government was opened to such collaborations by development partners. “SSDO is doing well in the programme as that is the way to reach the wider audience.
We look forward to a better synergy and working relationship with you,” he said. Eze said that though the radio school broadcast was embedded in the school curriculum as an in-school programme “it has improved mass literacy across the state as most people listen from their homes.” Also speaking, the Executive Director of SSDO, Mrs. Grace Nwobodo, said the town hall meeting was a prelude to another flagship radio programme of the group aimed at addressing exclusion of youths in politics. Nwobodo said that the latest programme tagged ‘The Awakening’ was a youth focused civic enlightenment aimed at reducing political apathy among young people in the South East. She said that the programme was funded by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Department for International Development (DFID).
“The overall objective is to deepen democracy and create an open society in Nigeria through the mass media by engaging the various youth strata on how to make constructive input to government plans. “We observed that young people in the South East are excluded from discussing issues that are germane to their empowerment and this comes as an intervention,” she said. Nwobodo said that ‘The Awakening’ would provoke the youth positive into actions of demanding full representation, involvement and participation in decision making processes.
“It will encourage them take ownership and assist government and other relevant stakeholders to drive the process of transparency, accountability and fair implementation of development progarmmes,” Nwobodo said. One of the participants, Miss Ebere Okoye said that the programme had become necessary following the widening gap between government and the youths in terms of inclusion in the conduct of government affairs. Okoye said that all efforts would be made to ensure that the enlightenment programme succeeded and applauded SSDO for attracting such laudable initiative to the zone.
