In 1977, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the Philippines, became involved in a human development campaign called “Alay Kapwa” (Help Thy Neighbour). At a planning seminar for this campaign, it was agreed that 36 villages should be covered by the campaign in the shortest possible time, and a very strict deadline was imposed. Yet, the organisers realised that even their 40-person strong speakers' bureau would need at least three months to accomplish this task and cover the whole area. The bureau was to be divided into four teams of eight persons each. To cover all the 36 villages, each team was to give more than nine seminars.
Then a relatively new and unusual idea emerged. One participant questioned the need for speakers to personally give the seminar in all the villages and presented a new idea. He explained that it would only take one night to cover the whole area and only five speakers, the best in the group, would be required. The other participants thought this man was crazy. Then he said: “we will use radio”.
This new idea of using radio to reach a huge audience aroused a great deal of interest and excitement. The notion that thousands of people would be able to hear the seminar during the same night was amazing. A strategy was then developed to use the other members of the bureau as facilitators. It was agreed that a facilitator would be stationed in each ‘barangay’2 to guide the group of listeners tuned in to the radio broadcast. At the time of the initial broadcast in 1977, some 65 to 70 participants in each village tuned in to the broadcast and discussed it with the help of the facilitator. This was the birth of the Bayanihan Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)-DZJO school on-the-air.
Two decades later, BBC-DZJO's facilitators continue to meet monthly to discuss plans and programmes of action and to share their experiences. In these meetings, the facilitators are kept abreast with current issues. Questions and issues are discussed to prepare them for effective facilitation at the village level. Since the time the first facilitators went out to the villages, the radio school has also realised that farmers have become more sensitive about development issues than the facilitators. Consequently, facilitators are now selected based on their knowledge of the topics to be covered by the radio school.
Radio school programmes are prepared and broadcast based on the following methodology which has been tested and refined over the past twenty years. A sample module and curriculum for a programme on soil conservation and management is included in Annex 2 as an example.
A 30-minute preparation and warm-up session is aired before the actual radio school programme. During this session, listeners are invited by the broadcaster to call on their neighbours to remind them to tune in to the programme. Then, feedback from the different groups that have written to the school is aired. Feedback can include birthday greetings, announcements regarding progress in a local group's membership recruitment, or information on specific problems faced by a certain community.
The programme proper starts with an input on a particular topic.
A discussion about the input follows. Whenever possible, relevant people are invited to the radio station to contribute their knowledge and experience to the discussion. For instance when the programme deals with agriculture, an ordinary farmer may be invited. Or when it focuses on health, a doctor, village healer, and/or villager suffering from an ailment may be invited to participate.
Following the discussion, the facilitator gives out assignments over the radio. These take the form of guide questions. The facilitator for each learner's group processes the questions and elicits responses from his/her respective group. The questions should be relevant to the listeners' lives and rooted in events of the time.
At this point, the radio is switched off to enable participants to discuss the issues covered by the programme in greater detail. These discussions at the village level provide opportunities to strengthen community-building efforts. Tentative or final solutions to perceived problems may be elicited from the participants.
The radio school closes with a community prayer at the village level. During this final stage, the facilitator may be able to gauge the spirituality of his/her particular group and how values and relationships are nurtured within the community spirit. This can help to create ways and means to harness and/or further enrich human resources. A report is sent to the radio school summarising the results of the discussion. Given that this is not a formal school system, fluctuations in the number of participants should not be a cause of concern provided the group is able to survive and sustain itself.
2 A barangay is the smallest administrative unit at the village level.
The concept of group learning is strongly advocated in the radio school methodology. Listening as a group is emphasised over and above individual listening. It is impossible to create a sense of community when individual listeners are not joined together in some way. However, for group listening to be interesting, the dynamics of the community in question must be evoked. Therefore, facilitators must always seek to build linkages and bridges between the radio station and listeners, and among the listeners themselves. In addition, the radio school broadcaster should be familiar with the situation of the station's listeners. He/she should study the station's listeners well and be attuned to their needs.
Imagination and creativity also play a vital role. For instance, listeners' clubs can be organised in villages, towns and provinces. Sponsoring contests can be used as a means to entice people to listen to the radio school's programmes. Village correspondents can be identified and organised to gather relevant local news. Key people from the grassroots can be identified. Community celebrations such as parties, fiestas and festivities also provide opportunities to gather news and ideas, and gain insights regarding the concerns and feelings of local people. Imaginative ways to actively involve the whole community should continually be sought. Broadcasters should be able to respond to listeners concerns through the radio. Programmes should seek to effectively adapt to the changes in people's perceptions and needs. If ways to give the people being served a voice can be found, then it must be done. After all, this is the essence of empowerment.
Expanding linkages with NGOs involved with in rural areas and other community-based organizations (CBOs) can provide opportunities to maximise resources. For instance, horizontal linkages can be built by identifying areas where different organizations can complement or supplement each other's efforts. In addition, vertical linkages can be encouraged by connecting rural listeners to power centres at different levels; for instances, from rural radio to urban radio or from local government to national government.
Print media can be used as a complementary resource material to radio programmes. A newsletter can be used to present a more thorough and comprehensive analysis of the issues discussed during the radio school and can provide the names and addresses of people to whom grievances and comments can be submitted. Printed materials can also include illustrations and letters from listeners, as well as technical and instructional materials such as those used in agricultural, health and nutrition programmes. Print media helps to reaffirm and supplement the retention of learning. Similarly, supplementary printed materials explaining enumeration or how-to steps in a process are useful to listeners once programmes have finished. For instance, where steps in a process are outlined over the radio, they can easily be forgotten, while in print listeners can refer back to them as necessary.
The BBC-DZJO experience illustrates the potency of the radio as a tool for education and community development as illustrated below in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Power of Radio as an Educational Tool
POTENCY OF RADIO
IDEOLOGY
VALUES FORMATION
POPULARIZATION
CLOUT
Massive INFO Dissemination
Monitoring and evaluation
MASSIFICATION of two way communication (Peoples' access to the power of media)
Linking/Networking
horizontal
vertical
National issues
