Success Stories
Class On-Air: Championing Remote Learning Through Radio-Based Instruction
July 04, 2021
From the Learning Continuity Innovations: An Emerging Good Practice Digest - Digest #6
Learning Continuity Innovations is developed by the ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines, a partnership project between the Department of Education (DepEd) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve early grade learning in the Philippines. To subscribe to our online digest, or share your emerging good practice, please contact us at [email protected].
Share:
There are many opportunities to continue learning through platforms such as TV, radio, and social media. Using these tools, let's continue to champion early grade learning even during the pandemic.
Background
In the Philippines, school shutdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic started in March 2020. It affected millions of Filipino children as schools faced the reality of having to adopt distance education in order that learning continuity can be realized. In accordance with the Department of Education's (DepEd) Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP), distance learning strategies need to be promoted and used to ensure that students continue their education despite the absence of face-to-face classes. But challenges inherent to delivering these strategies in resource-constrained areas have pushed schools divisions, such as Escalante City in Negros Occidental, for context-driven solutions.
The USAID ABC+: Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines Project, which is implemented in the Bicol and Western Visayas regions, supports DepEd’s BE-LCP and has developed a learning package focused on literacy at the kindergarten to grade 3 levels. The support package includes, among others, 32 radio/audio-based (RBI) and 32 television/video-based (TVBI) instructional materials to support reading at the early grade levels. These RBIs are being aired by partner radio stations in target areas and are also available on ABC+’s social media channels, along with the TVBI materials.
Challenges
Holding classes online has become one of the most common learning modalities employed by schools during the pandemic, but in places like Escalante City, maintaining a stable internet connection remains to be problematic. There are areas that do not have any mobile or internet services at all. Relying solely on internet-based mode of instruction, especially at the early grade levels, is therefore not ideal for schools in these areas. To fully implement the DepEd’s BE-LCP, there is a need to use other low-tech approaches to deliver lessons to students while they try to learn at home. Parents, guardians, and other home learning partners also need more support as they facilitate their children’s education at home.
“The airing of RBIs became a community-wide learning activity because aside from the students, the other members of the community are also learning by listening to the classes on-air.”
-Clarissa Zamora, Schools Division Superintendent, DepEd Division Escalante City
Solutions
Almost every household in Escalante City has a radio, and tuning in to listen to the news, music and other programs has become a way of life for the locals. With the lack of stable internet connectivity, the
Schools Division Office (SDO) of Escalante City has recognized that the radio can be an important educational tool especially during a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
With 27 schools under its governance, the SDO has also recognized the value of radio-based instructional materials and has focused on the delivery of these to support their students’ learning. It has partnered and coordinated with local radio station Radyo Atraka 98.7 to air RBIs to supplement modular learning. It has also successfully gathered support from different stakeholders and has provided transistor radios for students living in far-flung areas to ensure that learning remains inclusive.
In early 2021, Escalante City SDO has turned over a total of 1,150 transistor radios to the learners of 13 recipient schools offering blended learning with radio-based instruction. These radios are issued to boost the learning of students as they regularly tune in to Radyo Atraka, where the SDO was given airtime for educational purposes.
According to Ms. Clarissa Zamora, Schools Division Superintendent of DepEd Division Escalante City, “When the pandemic happened, we presented our learning continuity plan to the Local School Board (LSB) chaired by the Local Chief Executive. Included in the plan is the airing of RBIs because we wanted to make sure that students in far-flung areas and those without television or internet services can still access education. The board has been very supportive and engaged us with Radyo Atraka, which has given us an eight-hour time slot for free to broadcast RBIs during weekdays. Airtime was also given on Saturdays to broadcast content for kindergarten. The airing of RBIs became a community-wide learning activity because aside from the students, the other members of the community are also learning by listening to the classes on-air.”
ABC+’s “We Learn as One – Ang Radyo Kong Paaralan,” a literature-based literacy radio program, was one of the programs endorsed by the SDO for airing on Radyo Atraka, to supplement the existing materials being used in K to 3. These radio episodes are designed to help young children develop and master the four macro literacy skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Storytelling is enhanced in each ABC+ RBI lesson with tone-setting background music and sound effects for radio. This is meant to resemble face-to face storytelling as closely as possible where the teacher or the storyteller uses costumes, props, and different voices. Additionally, attention- and comprehension-monitoring questions are inserted in strategic sections of the story to keep the children engaged and thinking.
The ABC+ RBIs have become a part of the regular “K-3 literacy classes on-air” on Radyo Atraka and are being broadcasted every Thursday from 4 to 5 pm, covering half-hour lessons each in English and Filipino. Teachers and parents are guided by ABC+’s “How-to-Use” infographics so they can maximize the children’s learning while listening to the RBIs. Every school is being encouraged to work with parents to guide their children as they listen and learn through these radio programs.
“The ABC+ RBIs are very helpful to me as I teach. They help my students to fully understand their lessons. The materials given by ABC+ have really guided them.”
- Annie Balenario, Teacher III, Jonobjonob ES
Results
The classes on-air provide early grade students in Escalante City with meaningful and engaging contexts in which to learn literacy. The Schools Division, in monitoring students’ learning, found that RBIs have been helping develop children’s comprehension.
“Through the radio-based instructional materials, children can clearly understand the lessons because of the excellent voice talents that are engaging and entertaining. The children follow the stories in their booklets while listening to the radio. The radio content can guide the children in answering the exercises in the booklet. It also helps develop the children's comprehension,” says Alicia Geroso, Education Program Supervisor of the Schools Division Office (SDO).
Since all the RBI episodes are also available on Radyo Atraka’s social media channels and the ABC+ Learning Connects Facebook and YouTube channels, teachers and students also have another way to
access them in areas where the internet connection is strong.
"The ABC+ RBIs are very helpful to me as I teach. They help my students to fully understand their lessons. The materials given by ABC+ have really guided them," affirms Annie Balenario, Teacher III of Jonobjonob Elementary School.
The “classes on-air” using radio-based instructional materials not only allows early grade learning to continue, it also helps keep the K-3 students of Escalante City engaged and excited about learning.
"It became easier for me to understand the lessons, and the teacher's voice on the radio was also good so I like to listen. I am learning because the teacher on the radio explains very well the important information that I must learn to be good at reading,” as shared by Keithlane Concerman, a Grade 2 student from Paitan Integrated School. For Summer Nemenzo, another Grade 2 student of Escalante City ES, "There are also activities in the RBI that help enhance my listening comprehension skills."
In areas where access to digital infrastructure and tools is lacking, many distance learning strategies tend not to be feasible, thus exacerbating inequality in learning continuity. Escalante City SDO shows, however, that despite the absence of a reliable internet connectivity, early grade learning can continue and thrive. In fact, through the support of the local government, Escalante City SDO is already in the process of opening its own radio station to sustain the implementation of the radio based learning approach.
These supplemental radio-based learning materials, the active participation of teachers, the support of the local government, and the partnership among stakeholders have made these “classes on-air” a reality. These helped deliver literacy lessons remotely and engagingly to learners, especially those in disadvantaged areas. In turn, these have helped strengthen the role of radio as an important platform to deliver learning in the current educational system.