EducationEducationUpdateUpdate

The BBC World Service Trust and Education We use media – radio broadcasts, audio classroom materials, television programmes and print publications – to support education and teacher training. We work in partnership with government departments, educational institutions and NGOs to ensure that our programmes complement, support and extend their work. Our educational initiatives fall into three broad categories:

Literacy for life – basic education •for adults

Teacher training •Advocating education •

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JULY 2008

The BBC WorldService Trust is the BBC’s international charity. It uses media and communication to reduce poverty and promote human rights, thereby enabling people to build better lives.

Schoolchildren raise their hands in class in southern Africa

GIACOMO PIROzzI/PANOS PICTURES

2 BBC WORLD SERVICE TRUST EDUCATION UPDATE JULY 2008 SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER: BBCWORLDSERVICETRUST.ORG

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa – TESSA The BBC World Service Trust has been working with the TESSA consortium of fourteen African educational institutions and the Open University UK, to create audio materials for training primary school teachers as part of the open educational resources (OERs) on the TESSA website. In addition, to raise awareness among a mass audience in Africa, we produced a special season of radio programmes broadcast on the BBC World Service which highlighted important issues around the role of teachers in Africa and how the supply and quality of teachers can be improved.

TESSA brings together teachers and teacher educators from across Africa to create, use and reversion a range of materials to support school based teacher education and training. tessafrica.net provides quality resources for training Africa’s primary school teachers, using online materials that can be accessed via the web. These resources have been written and designed by staff from TESSA partner institutions across Africa

Three of the BBC World Service Trust’s major projects involve distance/open learning:

Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA)

Somali Radio Teacher

iLearn

The special Teachers in Africa homepage available on the BBC Africa website

The TESSA website contains valuable resources to support teachers

Sharing stories: teachers and pupils take part in a recording

The BBC World Service Trust supplies materials to support lessons

EducationUpdate

to equip primary school teachers with teaching skills in the key areas of literacy, numeracy, science, life skills, social studies and the arts.

Audio training material The BBC World Service Trust team in Nigeria created 30, three to four minute mini dramas. These modelled scenarios which teachers might encounter during their working lives. They are now a valuable audio resource for use in teacher training on the TESSA website.

The Nigeria team also collaborated with TESSA in producing a series of the popular radio drama, Story Story, highlighting the role of teachers in Africa.

In addition, a special Teachers in Africa website was created on the BBC Africa website, featuring stories and views from the programmes.

Further information regarding TESSA can be obtained from the Trust or the TESSA website: www.tessafrica.net

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VoicesHalimo (age 60)Halimo lives in Hargeisa with her husband and her three youngest children. She began a tailoring business in 1995 when her husband became sick and was forced to give up work. Having been given no other educational opportunities, Halimo was keen to be enrolled on the literacy programme so that she could become literate and better provide for her family. She started attending the classes in 2004, and has now completed both Level 1 and Level 2.

Halimo reported that attending the literacy classes had benefited her household’s livelihood security because she is now able to more accurately measure out cloth, keep accounts and maintain records of monies owed to her by customers. She is also able to help her children with their school work and feels that she has gained respect from her husband and family.

Mahamed (age 18)For most of his childhood, Mahamed worked as a livestock herder near Las Anod. In 2003 he moved to Burao to live with his uncle. Although his uncle owned a shop, he did not allow Mahamed to work for him because he was illiterate. However, since completing literacy Level 1 in April 2006, his uncle has asked him to assist him in the shop so that he can spend more time caring for his elderly father.

Because Mahamed is able to read and has gained basic numeracy skills, he is able to keep records and accounts, resulting in an increase in profits in the shop. Although Mahamed is not paid, he feels that he has gained the trust and respect of his uncle and has increased his sense of purpose and responsibility. He is hopeful that his work experience will earn him a good reputation amongst other shop keepers in Burao, and enable him to secure paid employment in the future.

iLearniLearn is an online learning system devised by the BBC World Service Trust for media professionals in developing and transitional countries. iLearn forms a key component of “blended learning” programmes – i.e. face-to-face training coupled with online learning.

The courses are aimed at users with poor Internet connectivity and with little or no technical expertise. They can be published in any language.

Many of our journalism training initiatives involve face-to-face training and distance learning. We build bespoke online training sites, using our unique online learning tool – iLearn. iLearn training projects have been successfully delivered in a wide range of countries including India, Indonesia, Iran, Liberia, Moldova, Nigeria, Oman, Somalia, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Yemen.

iLearn courses:

Promote the principles of balanced, objective •journalism

Provide advice, models and guidelines for best •practice

Focus on developing professional skills •iLearn was originally developed in 2002 to meet the needs of broadcast journalists and journalism students in Sarajevo. It now supports a wide range of training projects worldwide. Today, there are over 140 iLearn modules in over a dozen languages, ranging from basic journalism skills and practice to more specialised topics.

Distance and open learning is only one element of the work that the BBC World Service Trust undertakes. To visit the iLearn website, please click www.i-learn.co.uk

ZigZagmag.net consists of an audience-focused online space where young Iranian trainees from all over the country can experience the day-to-day activities and interactions of an online newsroom.

The site works alongside mentored online journalism courses, delivered through iLearn.

Trainees receive feedback from an online community of seasoned journalists, other trainees and the site’s users.

This often results in discussion threads developing after the publication of new articles, both in the virtual newsroom between trainees and trainers and, at a later stage, in the public space of the website.

Somali Radio Teacher Since 2002 the BBC World Service Trust has been working in partnership with the Africa Educational Trust (AET) and the BBC Somali Service to deliver weekly radio programmes, face-to-face classes and study packs to teach literacy, numeracy and life skills in Somalia. We aim to reach people who have been denied a conventional education, particularly women, the poor and other traditionally disadvantaged groups, such as nomads.

Over the last five years, 40,000 people in Somalia have successfully completed literacy and basic education courses through this distance learning approach in classes which are held in 500 towns, rural villages and IDP camps. The ‘Radio Teacher’ programme has been extremely successful mainly due to:

the high level of access to radio in Somalia, and the •popularity and prestige of the BBC. ( The BBC Somali Service is listened to by over 90% of adult Somalis)

the educational quality and entertainment value of •broadcasts

the emphasis on close community collaboration and •consultation and AET’s ability and experience in adapting educational programmes to suit the needs of disadvantaged groups

access to regular classes led by trained volunteer •tutors and printed course materials

This distance learning approach using educational radio programmes, print materials and community-based classes has been particularly suited to the needs of those living in Somalia. Since 1991 there has been no effective central government and the ongoing conflict has resulted in great movements of population and a breakdown in conventional education delivery. The use of radio means that even when fighting forces people to flee their homes, they can still follow the ‘Radio Teacher’ lessons uninterrupted. This flexibility of radio and the central role of community volunteers as tutors, means that whole sections of the Somali population who are affected by conflict or who have missed out on conventional schooling, now have access to quality basic education.

We are currently working with the Africa Educational Trust on a Level Three literacy course and the original beginner Level One ‘Radio Teacher’ programme is being completely revised and updated in partnership with CARE and UNICEF.

Somali Radio Teacher delivers weekly radio programmes on literacy, numeracy and life skills

AET

BBC WORLD SERVICE TRUST EDUCATION UPDATE JULY 20084

How we workThe BBC World Service Trust partners with civil society, the media and governments to build long term developmental solutions. To do this we:

Produce creative programmes in multi-media •formats which inform and engage audiences around key development issues

Strengthen the media section sector through •building professional capacity and infrastructure

Apply rigorous research so that we can measure •impact and value for money and produce information that informs our partners and the work of the BBC World Service Trust

We work in over 40 developing and transitional countries in:

Africa •Asia •Central Asia & the Caucasus •Europe •Latin America & the Caribbean •North Africa & the Middle East •

We focus on six key issues:

Education •Emergency Response •Environment •Governance & Human Rights •Health •Livelihoods •

EducationUpdate

We produced over 1,000 hours of education and health programming in 28 languages in 2006/2007. Our TV, radio and online programmes reached audiences totalling 119 million worldwide and we trained in excess of 1,500 journalists, broadcasters and support staff.

In 2006/2007 the Trust:

Employed 500 staff worldwide, 80% of whom •were from, and worked in developing and transitional countries

Won 13 international awards for its output •Worked in over 43 developing and transitional •countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Former Soviet Union and Europe.

The Research & Learning Group (R&L) is an international group of research professionals from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the UK, who have been recruited and trained by the BBC World Service Trust to specialise in media and audience research. The R&L Goup focuses on four key activities:

Providing audience and market insights to inform •project development throughout the project cycle

Conducting qualitative and quantitative research •studies to assess impact

Building capacity in audience research skills in •country

Documenting and disseminating what has been •learned

The BBC World Service Trust uses media and communication to further international development

BBC World Service TrustBush House, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK

Tel +44 (0) 20 7557 2462

Fax +44 (0) 20 7397 1622

Email ws.trust@bbc.co.uk

Web bbcworldservicetrust.org

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