NGO educates girls via radio in 29 FCT communities

Some schools have adopted e-learning for their pupils and students during the COVID-19 lockdown, but majority of the pupils from rural communities and children of low-income earners in urban centres cannot afford to join the online classes. To bridge this gap, an NGO, Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE) II, has initiated “Literacy by […]

Some schools have adopted e-learning for their pupils and students during the COVID-19 lockdown, but majority of the pupils from rural communities and children of low-income earners in urban centres cannot afford to join the online classes. To bridge this gap, an NGO, Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises (ENGINE) II, has initiated “Literacy by Radio” for marginalised girls.

With the UK Department for International Development (DFID) funding, ENGINE II, a three-year programme winding up June, 2020, and one of its implementing partners, TCF, has organised a radio waves programme for indigent FCT girls so as to continue their learning.

The ENGINE II team adopted a radio outreach initiated in collaboration with the National Mass Education Commission (NMEC) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to promote literacy in hard-to-reach communities of the FCT.

This outreach started airing on Nigeria Info 95.1 FM on May 16, 2020, twice a week: Saturday-09:30am to 10:00am and Sundays-12:00pm to 12:30pm.

Literacy by Radio, which is reaching out to 2,000 ENGINE II participants is meant to enhance literacy and numeracy using radio in a bid to ensure that majority of the listeners who possess radio sets benefit from the educational programme and to mitigate the impact of COVID 19 on the education of marginalised girls.

Also, Chronicle learnt that the trainings are tailored to suit different categories of beneficiaries’ capacity, learning and interests to prepare them for successful transition in education, work and business.

Primers (guides) were distributed to participants for use during the radio programme to ensure participation and assimilation.

Some of the beneficiaries who expressed joy that the programme has helped them continue learning despite the COVID-19 disruption in their learning processes, said it had impacted positively on them and had kept them on their toes.

One of the girls, Rahina Adama, said she learnt a lot through the radio programme, adding that neither her nor her parents had smart phone to follow online classes.

Another participant, Agatha Yaro, said the key successes of Literacy by Radio were too many to count, adding that the most important thing was that they were still learning despite the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Executive Director of TCF, Mrs. Tayo Erinle, said efforts were being made in Nigeria to ensure that non-literate adults, out-of-school youths, as well as marginalised and disadvantaged groups, had access to basic education.

Mrs. Erinle said, “There are problems of lukewarm attitudes to literacy classes on the part of learners due to the fact that they have to concentrate on their businesses for economic survival. This led to the establishment of Literacy by Radio through NMEC. The commission has supplied over 100 radio sets each to the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, with over 1,800 facilitators trained for the programme.”

She said the programme was established in 2002 to address illiteracy, especially among adults, adding that there were centres in each local government area where learners gathered every week to meet with facilitators for further explanations on what they had learnt on radio.

Mrs. Erinle added that, “Through Literacy by Radio, most of the learners are now sensitive to some critical issues like environment, health and hygiene, civic responsibilities, agriculture, among others. They are learning at their pace with renewed confidence.”