Context of Implementation
Our research focuses on conceptualizing and planning a school-based educational broadcasting service. In planning the implementation process, we attend to the contextual realities that will impact on various aspects on the service. Some risk exists, and is particularly acute with regard to a school broadcasting service in South Africa. We argue that, while some readers may disagree with the choices we have made about which processes and factors to focus on, it is indisputable that the context within which a school broadcasting service will be implemented is continuously changing.

With regard to general educational policies, the first educational white paper provides the general philosophy, goals, values, and principles outlined for the new education and training system, and which will need to form the basis of implementation plans for educational broadcasting. The second white paper, which deals specifically with transformation of schooling, also has important ramifications for educational broadcasting. Equally important is the implementation of a new national curriculum, Curriculum 2005. The success of its implementation is crucial to the transformation of South African education and training. To be most useful, a school broadcasting service will need to ensure that it contributes constructively to ensuring this success, rather than impeding it. Two further relevant educational policy processes are the development of policy on technology-enhanced learning and the development of a framework of quality standards for distance education.

In our examination of broadcasting policies, we observe that broadcasting policies, like educational ones, are developing constantly. Various policy provisions collectively stress the responsibility of broadcasting to play a constructive educational role. We also examine the formal partnership between SABC and the Department of Education. The rationale behind the partnership was part of the conceptualization, planning, and implementation of different educational broadcasting services, of which the school service is a part.

In addition to policy, it is necessary to examine the physical environment of which school broadcasting would be part. Various constraints, particularly those of infrastructure, resources and learning and teaching systems in schools, need examination. Many of these constraints are the continuing remnants of inequalities arising from apartheid education systems. We divide these into four main issues: school access to broadcasting services; physical infrastructure and material conditions in schools; teacher education and teaching processes; and learners and learning systems. Each is explored in detail in chapter one of the report.

International Broadcasting Experiences
Around the world, educational broadcasting has undergone significant changes in the last few decades. Three stages in the historical development of educational broadcasting are apparent: early optimism; disillusionment; and renewed optimism. The first phase was a period of intentional education, characterized by the producer’s intention to teach and the viewers’ intention to learn. Early educational broadcasts were conceptualized according to pedagogical, and not broadcasting, criteria. During this time, the ‘new technology’ of television was seen as perfectly suited to mass education. It was thought that broadcasting was a way of keeping pace with rapid changes in knowledge and information requirements. The early optimism of this first phase was replaced by a period of disillusionment and scepticism, as educational broadcasting failed to have the impact initially expected. Broadcasting was recognized as being educationally restrictive, and was criticized for being inappropriate for education. The disadvantage of using a unidirectional technology that only allows for interaction in a very limited sense was recognized and emphasized, while newer technologies like videocassette recorders and computers were thought to have greater educational usefulness. The third phase of new optimism sees educational broadcasters, in technology rich countries, acting as producers of educational resources and exploiting new technology options.

An examination of broadcasters around the world, as well as research conducted on European educational broadcasting, reveals many trends. These are described in detail in the main report, but some are highlighted here:

• Educational broadcasting does not draw large audiences when a specific niche is targeted. As a result, broadcasters no longer target niche audiences (like schools) with their broadcasts - they aim to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and, to interest viewers beyond the niche market.
• Internationally, educational broadcasting services have tended to stop aiming to make direct curriculum interventions on specific topics.
• International broadcasters have realized the importance of providing non-broadcasting support to teachers and students. Broadcasters also use new technologies to complement broadcast services.
• Very few broadcasts are used synchronously in schools. Where there is synchronous use, it is in primary school series that have regular time slots.
• School-based services have been stopped in many countries. Possible reasons include: logistical difficulties in using synchronous broadcasts; changes in technology and equipment; rapid dating of materials; and poor maintenance of equipment in schools.
• Schools broadcasts have been affected by financial pressures on most educational broadcasting departments, which face strong competition from programmes with greater audience pull.
• Educational broadcasters maintain communication and interaction with the education community through structured relationships with the educational authorities, regular contact with schools and established advisory boards
• Evaluation is an important part of any school service. Around the world many educational broadcasters draw on research to inform and to guide their services.
• The role of the educational directorate of international broadcasters has shifted from educational broadcasting production to offering, conceptualizing and coordinating coherent non-broadcasting support for the use of broadcasting and other educational resources. In some technology-rich countries, educational directorates of broadcasters now offer a range of educational resources using a variety of technologies.

Overview of Educational Broadcasting in South Africa
As an industry, South African broadcasting initiatives are small but quite active, and a range of non-government, private and public broadcaster initiatives have been undertaken in recent years. It is essential to establish what South African broadcasting initiatives can tell us about lessons learnt by others.

SABC Radio’s historically links to apartheid educational policies continues to generate resistance among African language radio stations to the inclusion of formal educational programming in their line-up. Other problems, such as high levels of centralization, lack of autonomy, and the low status accorded to black personnel compound this. Station managers recognize that the Learn ‘n Live partnership between SABC and national Department of Education offers both opportunities and threats to their radio stations, and these are explored in chapter three of the report.

Many station managers do not believe that the SABC Radio has developed good formats and styles which are attractive and educationally beneficial. In part, this is due to station managers’ conceptualization of educational programming as ‘informal programming’, a conceptualization with which most are comfortable because it downplays educational effectiveness in favour of ‘edutainment’. Evaluation reports of various educational broadcasts on radio provide that early childhood development and educator development programmes are in need of substantial improvement.

With regard to television, SABC Education has established a significantly more coherent service. Channel One broadcasts a mixture of programmes for general public consumption, as well as schools-related programming and programmes for young children. Channel Two currently broadcasts programmes for early childhood development, farmers, and parents. Channel Three broadcasts The Learning Channel for an hour and a half per day. SABC Education Television has developed several platforms. However, all of the programmes vary in length, which has implications for whether or not they can be used synchronously in the classroom. Most of the programmes are in English, a very small number in Afrikaans, and hardly any in African languages. The SABC seems to own the copyright on the overwhelming majority of programmes, which will facilitate their re-use in a new school service.

SABC Education Television describes its strategic vision in 1998 as part of a partnership to ‘launch a schools broadcast service to support the introduction of the new curriculum and teacher training.’ In terms of this vision, it is necessary to understand the research activities conducted by SABC Education Television to support this. We argue that the strengths and weaknesses of these activities and systems will impact on the implementation of this service.

Much evaluation of television broadcasting has focused on broadcasting issues – and substantially less on educational issues. Two issues require further attention, namely the development of an educational understanding of how programmes were used and an understanding of learning benefits for listeners or viewers.

We also explore SABC Education Radio and Television’s marketing systems, focusing on product development (print support, compilation and packaging), product distribution (audio and video sales) and promotion. These are described in chapter three of the report. Both radio and television recognize that marketing communications need to be holistic and based on different technologies and media. Partnerships are also identified as important, especially between Education Radio and Television. Clearly SABC Education promotion and print support is a seriously underdeveloped area, and needs urgent attention.

We then examine the initiatives of various private and non-government organizations. Private and NGO initiatives have provided some successful teacher and non-broadcast support. Successful identification of relevant content and interesting formats and styles is linked to extensive and appropriate consultation and research during pre-production. Concerns with developing resources in African languages do exist, while financial constraints have also restricted the development of NGO-produced resources. However, several NGOs have first hand experience of the constraints associated with developing resources in the face of a lack of technological equipment in schools.

Educational Uses of Audio and Video
In chapter four of the report, we explore, from an educational perspective, how audio and video resources can potentially be used to support schooling. It is, however, necessary to recognize that educational effectiveness is not – and will never be – intrinsic to any medium or technology. Potential exists for technologies to support resource-based learning systems, but several challenges need to be overcome before this can happen.

Audio resources have the potential to support teaching music appreciation, pronunciation, and language skills, and to provide motivation for, illustrate, and enhance certain learning activities. Several studies indicate that children perceive learning through audio to be significantly easier than through the textual medium. It is, however, necessary to challenge several important and erroneous assumptions about audio resources.

In a similar way, we recognize that video resources have educational potential. Video is a good medium for showing movement, exploring the unfamiliar, and stimulating learning using different media such as text, audio, and graphics. Similar to research findings on audio, international studies pointed out that children perceive it to be easier to learn from video than text resources. Video resources – if instructionally designed to do so – can encourage and support a transformation of traditional student-teacher interactions in the classroom. We note, however, that discussions of video resources and learning tend to conflate use of television with use of videocassette recorders. Hence, a lot of what is described as television research is actually in fact about video stimulation delivered on videocassette. It is essential, therefore, that issues of technology not be conflated with issues of media. The stop-start, pause and replay facilities of video recording technology, which allow students or teachers to interact more easily with the learning resource, are important and in some ways, support interactive learning more than television broadcasts.

In-Principle Approaches to a School Educational Broadcasting Service
The above research provides a solid foundation on which to develop plans for a broadcasting service. This planning process has taken, as its point of departure, that the plans developed will support the implementation of a school-based educational broadcasting service. The focus is an important one, as it implies broadcasting that will take place during school hours and will be used by learners and teachers at schools. Nevertheless, there is still a need to develop a clear in-principle understanding of the implications of establishing such a service. In doing this, we will focus on locating a school-based service within a broader broadcasting service that supports educational provision at school level.

A key step in the process of establishing an in-principle approach for a school-based educational broadcasting service is to explore briefly the relationship between education and broadcasting. This is necessary because it closes off unnecessary debate about whether or not there is any educational role for television or radio (in South Africa, this debate has already been resolved in the affirmative). This changes the focus of planning processes such as the one reflected in this report significantly, preventing wastage of time and energy on debates the outcome of which will not alter the fact that the public broadcaster has an educational mandate that it must fulfil. This planning process is, in many important ways, driven by broadcasting prerogatives and not by educational debates (although it quite obviously must be informed by the latter when one seeks to find answers to questions four and five particularly).

This helps to define clearer focus for the task at hand, which is to plan the best possible educational broadcasting service and not to debate whether or not broadcasting is the most appropriate educational intervention. It has also already been established that school education is an area of high priority, sufficiently so to warrant a significant proportion of public educational broadcasting expenditure to be allocated to this area. Consequently, the focus of this planning exercise is to determine what roles a broadcasting service can most usefully play in support of school education.

The School Service
Given this, possible focus areas of a school service might be as follows:

• Curriculum support.
• Professional development of teachers.
• Governance, management, and administration of schools.

Because a school educational broadcasting service can comprise any element of broadcasting that supports educational provision at school level in any way, there is a number of options that one might explore when designing a complete service. These can, of course, be chosen in different combinations during the school year, with a view to tailoring the service appropriately (for example, taking account of when schools are on vacation). In addition, there is a range of programming genres that could be used when planning a school educational broadcasting service. There are also various strategies that might be employed develop or acquire programming. These are of great relevance because they have direct implications on costing, and thus will have to form the basis of the broadcast plan. Finally, a broadcast strategy focusing on supporting schools cannot simply be developed in a vacuum, but must be seen as part of a bigger, integrated system. Consequently, to succeed, such a service must include a range of ‘non-broadcast’ strategies. The sets of options of each of these are described in detail in the main report.

Developing a Focus for a School-based Educational Broadcasting Service
This plan focuses primarily on the school-based elements of a school educational broadcasting service. It is necessary to understand the assumptions and principles underpinning such a service in the context for which it is intended. These are listed below, and described in detail in the main report:

• The school-based educational broadcasting service will be defined in terms of primary place and time of engagement.
• The extent of the school-based educational broadcasting service will be constrained by limitations of budget and time available on radio and television stations.
• Programming in the school-based educational broadcasting service will need to target teachers and learners simultaneously.
• Programming will have to be designed to engage and not to alienate or marginalize teachers.
• The ability of teachers to integrate programmes into day-to-day classroom activities will, at least initially, be very low.
• Programmes will need to be designed for use in different ways, allowing for use at different levels according to the skills levels of the teachers using the programmes.
• The service will need to be accompanied by strong professional development for teachers.
• The process of establishing listening and viewing habits will be lengthy.
• The service will need to focus primarily on providing curriculum support.
• Professional development support for teachers should be a theme running through all programming, wherever possible.
• It will be necessary to ensure that the service assists teachers to manage the implementation of Curriculum 2005.
• It will not be possible for the service to provide a systematic course or to cover each topic in the curriculum.
• Programmes will need to support key educational insights, concepts, and approaches.
• References, language, and images in the service must reflect the reality faced by most teachers and learners, and encourage use of resource to which they are likely to have access.
• The service must be complementary to, and support, the goals, values, and principles of the education departments, both national and provincial.
• Programming will need to be influenced by the constraints of school timetables.
• The service will have to lobby for, and be accompanied by, concerted efforts to extend access to physical infrastructure.
• Access to VCRs will increase significantly over the next two to three years.
• Programmes will be watched as they are broadcast, but will also need to be designed to allow for more flexible use in recorded format.
• Programmes will need to be repeated to allow realistically sized groups to watch or listen
• Programmes will need to be re-broadcast outside school hours to allow for home-based viewing or listening
• The school-based service will need to be accompanied by an effective, information-rich promotion strategy.
• The service should attempt to function as a focal point, bringing together various existing initiatives.

The principles and assumptions underpinning school-based educational broadcasting articulated above have suggested that there are several conceptual and logistical difficulties and challenges in trying to provide synchronous broadcasts for use in classrooms during school hours. For this reason, we recommend that the initial focus of school-based broadcasting services be limited to Foundation Phase education. This decision has been influenced by various factors. It is based first on an understanding that, given limitations of airtime and budget, there is a need to narrow focus. Foundation Phase appears to be the most appropriate area on which to focus for the following reasons:

1. Much of the ongoing activity around the implementation of Curriculum 2005 is taking place in the Foundation Phase area.
2. There is far greater flexibility in terms of timetables than there are in other areas of schooling.
3. Because Foundation Phase curriculum has been designed in an integrated way, programmes developed can be used by more learners and teachers in more ways, according to their needs.
4. Good educational practice points to the importance of making links between different curriculum areas when teaching, and, from a broadcasting perspective, this can be more easily managed when developing support resources for an integrated curriculum than where the curriculum has been compartmentalized.
5. Because teachers at Foundation Phase level plan for activities across much longer times, the need for variety within the class becomes much more immediate than it does at other levels.
6. Both internationally and locally, broadcasting has already invested significant resource in developing programmes that can effectively be used to support Foundation Phase education, particularly with regard to television.
7. There are many more learners at the primary school level than at secondary level.

The above rationale is, of course, of no relevance if there are not meaningful educational roles for using broadcasting resources at the Foundation Phase. At Foundation phase television could be used to good effect in helping to achieve the following goals (this is a partial list only):

• Develop language, vocabulary, and listening skills;
• Stimulate the imagination by encouraging children to create mental pictures;
• Create movements for control, coordination, and body awareness;
• Encourage creativity and play;
• Stimulate curiosity about the world and local environments;
• Encourage and reinforce pattern recognition for both literacy and numeracy; and
• Stimulate talking, reading, and writing activities.

These aims are not specific, or intrinsic, to television, but rather are selections from the Learning Programme aims.

Operational Principles for the School-Based Service
Repeats of programmes each week may be necessary to cater for allow schools to cater for multiple student cohorts.

• Given resource constraints at schools, programmes should be re-broadcast outside school hours.
• Programmes will need to be dubbed into various languages and re-broadcast in these languages.
• Production of new programmes and series of programmes should be kept to a minimum.
• Where new productions are commissioned, these should focus exclusively on developing resources that lend themselves to recording or purchase on cassette
• School-based Foundation Phase broadcasting should be separated into two levels, one aimed at less mature learners, the other at more mature learners.
• Programmes demonstrating activities or tasks should be realistic in terms of the kinds of resources they expect to be available for use by teachers and learners within the schools.
• The aims of programmes should be clear and overt, either within the programme itself or through the use of continuity presentation.
• Programmes should be designed for use across grades within the Foundation Phase, particularly to support those teachers whose classes contain students from more than one grade.

A situational analysis of radio in South Africa, supplemented with consultation with key people in the area, has indicated clearly that radio stations are unlikely in the short to medium term to conduct any school broadcasting that is both intended for use in classrooms and broadcast during school hours. Nevertheless, one specific suggestion has emerged that we believe is worth noting, and this is the concept of establishing regional news services for education, and schools in particular. In this way, radio could be a very useful role within the overall school service.

Support Services
As has been mentioned, various support services will be essential to the successful implementation of the school-based service. These are summarized in the diagram below. The table following the diagram outlines the key activities required in each area.

Click here to view the School Broadcasting Service model

The remainder of this report is devoted to describing each of the support strategies in greater detail, both in principle and with specific reference to the broadcasting choices outlined in chapter five. We then conclude by presenting a broad quality assurance framework for the service as a whole. The activities proposed in implementing support strategies are summarized below, and described in detail in the main report. The activities provided in the table often have more than one purpose; for example, many resource development activities also promote the service, while many promotion activities also build professional development networks. Consequently, we have grouped activities into different areas, and then used a grid format to highlight other functions that individual activities might perform.