Supporting schooling through broadcasting

The report writers of a strategic plan for a school-based educational broadcasting service - Neil Butcher, Nicky Roberts, and Carey-Ann Jackson - outline the plan that has just been developed with the SABC and Department of Education.

Since April this year, SAIDE has conducted intensive educational media research, commissioned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC Education) and the Department of Education, which culminated in a report entitled, A School-Based Educational Broadcasting Service for South Africa - Strategic Plan Developed for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The aim has been to prepare for the phased implementation of a school-based educational broadcasting service that supports teaching, learning, and whole school development. The report describes a strategic plan that will ensure educational relevance and financial sustainability.

The report itself begins with a discussion of the context of implementation, focusing on policy issues and the material, learning, and teaching realities within schools. This, in combination with descriptions of international and local broadcasting experiences and discussions of educational benefits of using audio and video resources in schools, provides an essential framework for the strategic plan.

In developing an understanding of the nature of the service, our point of departure was that the research would support implementation of a school-based service. This is important, because it implies that broadcasting will occur during school hours and will be used by learners and teachers at schools. SAIDE developed a clear in-principle understanding of the implications of establishing such a service. In doing this, we located a school-based service within a broader broadcasting service supporting schooling through a wide range of broadcasting interventions.

The in-principle approach required an exploration of the relationship between education and broadcasting, which closed off unnecessary debate about whether or not there was any educational role for television or radio. In South Africa, this has already been resolved in the affirmative. This changed the focus of the planning significantly, because it recognizes that the public broadcaster has an educational mandate that it must fulfil. The plans were therefore informed by broadcasting prerogatives, not just educational ones. Linked to this, too, was the fact that other role players and policy makers have – during earlier planning processes - prioritized school education as a focus for SABC Education. SAIDE’s plans therefore focused on roles that a broadcasting service could most usefully play in supporting school education, in terms of:
•    curriculum support;
•    professional development of teachers; and
•    governance, management, and administration of schools.

We focused on the school-based elements of a school educational broadcasting service, which will need to be underpinned by the following assumptions and principles:
•    The school-based educational broadcasting service is defined in terms of primary place and time of engagement.
•    The extent of the school-based educational broadcasting service is constrained by limitations of budget and time available on radio stations and television channels.
•    Programming in the school-based educational broadcasting service will have to target teachers and learners simultaneously.
•    Programming will have to be designed to engage, not to alienate or marginalize, teachers.
•    The ability of teachers to integrate programmes into day-to-day classroom activities will, at least initially, be limited.
•    Programmes will need to be designed for use in different ways, allowing for use at different levels according to the skills levels of teachers using the programmes.
•    The service will need to be accompanied by strategies for supporting professional development of 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’ management of 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 should reflect learning and teaching realities, and encourage use of resources to which teachers and learners are likely to have access.
•    The service should complement, and support, the goals, values, and principles of national and provincial education departments.
•    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 have to increase significantly over the next two to three years.
•    Programmes will initially be watched as they are broadcast, but should 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.

There are several conceptual and logistical challenges associated with the above. Therefore, we recommended that the initial focus of school-based educational broadcasting service be limited to Foundation Phase education. This decision was informed by various factors:
1. Given limitations of airtime and budget, there is a need to narrow focus, and Foundation Phase appears to be the most appropriate area on which to focus.
2. Much of the ongoing activity around the implementation of Curriculum 2005 is taking place in Foundation Phase.
3. In Foundation Phase, there is far greater flexibility in terms of timetables than there are in other areas of schooling.
4. Because Foundation Phase curricula have now been designed in an integrated way, programmes developed can be used by more learners and teachers in more flexible ways.
5. Good educational practice points to the importance of making links between different curriculum areas when teaching, and, from a broadcasting perspective, this could be more easily managed when developing support resources for an integrated curriculum.
6. Because Foundation Phase teachers plan for activities across much longer times, the need for variety within the class is more obvious than at other levels.
7. Both internationally and locally, broadcasting initiatives have already invested significant resources in developing programmes that can effectively be used to support Foundation Phase education in South Africa, particularly with regard to television.
8. There are many more learners at primary than at secondary level.

We recognized that the above rationale was, of course, of no relevance if there were no meaningful educational roles for using broadcasting resources in Foundation Phase classrooms. In Foundation Phase, television could be used to good effect in helping to achieve among others, the following goals:
•    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 Learning Programme aims.

The following operational principles for the school-based service were articulated:
•    Repeats of programmes each week are necessary to allow schools to cater for multiple student cohorts.
•    Given resource constraints at schools, programmes should be re-broadcast outside school hours.
•    Programmes 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 expected 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.

The role of SABC Educational Radio was an important consideration. A situational analysis of radio in South Africa, supplemented by consultation with key people in the industry, indicated clearly that radio stations were unlikely, in the short- to medium-term, to conduct any school broadcasting intended for use in classrooms or broadcast during school hours. Nevertheless, one specific suggestion was the establishment of regional educational news services, aimed at schools in particular. In this way, radio had a very useful role within the overall school service.

Various support services were identified as essential to successful implementation. These are summarized in the diagram below.

In the final report, we explained in detail, how these various services would support, and ensure sustainability, of a quality school-based educational broadcasting service. We hope that they will lead to the implementation of a successful and relevant broadcasting service during 1999.

SAIDE’s full report to SABC Education is available on the SAIDE’s web site: http://www.saide.org.za/sabc/project1/