That poorer countries face very particular educational challenges is clear. Educational attainment varies enormously across the globe and within particular societies, and at times the challenges appear very daunting. But we have found some methods and approaches which we believe can not only provide education to a far wider audience, but do so in ways that are effective, inexpensive, and can garner the support of local community leaders. In this chapter, we will start with a summary of our core findings, then discuss the policy implications, before ending with some first-person stories from the TELA project.

Summary of Core Findings

After six months of participation in the TELA TRI programs, we observed an average improvement of 99.1% in EGRA (literacy) scores and an average improvement of 97.2% in EGMA (numeracy) scores. These figures were arrived at by testing 609 pupils that participated in the TELA radio programs. Only 19 of the pupils who participated in the baseline assessment could not be retested, which indicates a very low attrition rate of 3%. The total number of students reached by our program across 750 learning centers was 22,000. This number does not include the thousands of other children and adults who listened to the program in their homes.

This was accomplished on a budget of $801,000—representing an average cost of $36 per child over the six-month duration of the program. By any standard, this is an extraordinary and encouraging achievement. The project involved mostly a part-time workforce including 750 learning center facilitators, 75 university students,1 three radio production staff, two faculty members, three monitoring and evaluation staff, an intern, two work-study students, and three full time administrative staff. We also had more than 20 volunteers from amongst the university personnel and from the local community, 35 casual enumerators (who participated in administering the baseline and end-line EGRA and EGMA tests), as well as quite a number of university security personnel who were assigned various duties.

Four very important findings emerged from the project:

  1. 1.

    Beneficiaries exposed to a combination of mobile classroom visits and the TRI radio programs out-performed those exposed only to the radio programs by an average of 25%.

    While the radio programs on their own were very impactful, monthly mobile classroom visits made a significant difference. In places where trained teachers are not thick on the ground, this gives us very good reason for hope; it is one way around a serious teacher shortage. It also underscores the importance of a mix of communication technologies in providing education in emergencies.

  2. 2.

    The lower the baseline score, the higher the improvement rate across outcome measures.

    The TRI programs were most successful in supporting the weakest learners. Learners aged 10–12 benefitted most from the literacy program, followed by those aged 7–9 and then those 13 and above. The programs were particularly useful in providing rapid support to weaker learners. In the case of Numeracy, the younger ones improved on average by 145%.

  3. 3.

    In both literacy and numeracy tests, girls improved significantly more than boys—the difference being 20 and 25% respectively.

    We intentionally created more female characters on the TRI programs in both literacy and numeracy. The teachers in both numeracy and literacy programs were female, and three out of the four radio children were girls. We did this specifically to encourage interest, participation, and engagement by girls who have much lower school attendance and educational attainment records than boys in Northern Nigeria. At the learning centers, we observed that girls generally participated in the programs more actively than boys and had higher average attendance. They were generally more engaged in all activities.

  4. 4.

    Mallam Nuhu in the numeracy radio program was by far the favorite character among the children, even more popular than the teacher.

    In the TRI storyline, Mallam Nuhu is a 60-year-old granddad, who, after failing in business due to his poor numeracy skills, joined a group of children to learn basic numeracy. His many numeracy problems—ranging from his lost kola nuts to difficulties in finding house numbers, created the learning opportunities for the children. The children learned by working with the radio teacher to help solve Mallam Nuhu’s problems.

    Moreover, Mallam Nuhu also fulfilled the role of the granddad, who wields enormous influence within a highly patriarchal context. By framing him as an advocate of education, we built an epistemic validation into the very structure of the program. The children connected deeply with Mallam Nuhu and learned by helping him to solve his numeracy problems. In the literacy program where there was no “Mallam Nuhu” character, the radio teacher, Mallamma Rasheeda, was the favorite character.

  5. 5.

    Education can be achieved using technology at an extremely low cost.

    The main technological artifacts that were procured in mass quantity for the program were radio receivers. A total of 5800 radio receivers were procured for the 22,000 beneficiaries—with up to seven pupils listening to one radio receiver per time. The good aspect about radio is that the cost of deployment and uptake is extremely low. It can reach masses simultaneously. This offers lots of promise for education in emergencies, particularly when enhanced with synched workbook activities.

At the end of the TELA project, we sought and obtained a six months no-cost extension because we still had sufficient funds left in our budget to train radio producers in Northern Nigeria on the TRI approach, and further funds to work with radio stations in Northern Nigeria to broadcast the programs and the local songs.

Policy Implications

Three major policy implications emerge from this project.

First, radio and mobile technologies can provide a swift response to the educational crises not only in Northeast Nigeria but also in post-conflict and impoverished societies in general, and in situations where there are disruptions to education, such as during wars and pandemics or in the wake of natural disasters. The nature of instructional radio has a direct impact on learning outcomes. In producing instructional radio content for Out-of-School Children, a core objective should be to increase the love for learning, particularly in societies where there are no schools. It is a love for learning, and curiosity, that will bring children consistently to the non-formal learning spaces.

Second, in addition to creating a shared space for learning in a fun atmosphere, TRI can be particularly beneficial for girls. This will be especially useful in societies where there are cultural walls that stop girls from going to school. To help support girls who, in many cases, are deliberately excluded from education, content should include characters with whom they can identify and stories that challenge their imagination and inspire them to believe in their own abilities. This is strengthened by having female teachers.

Finally, an effective humanitarian response strategy for post-conflict societies should have a mass educational intervention plan at its very center. TRIs and mobile classrooms can provide the urgent educational intervention needed for the millions of children whose education has been disrupted by violence, natural disasters or pandemics. The lessons learned in Nigeria, we are convinced, can be applied elsewhere.

The findings from the TELA project indicate that creatively designed Transactional Radio Instruction programs can play a significant role in improving learning outcomes and a positive engagement with education among children in crises or post-conflict societies where schools have been shut down or where there are no teachers.

Furthermore, the project underscores the need to reconnect education to its social context so that communities do not see education as “foreign” and diametrically opposed to their cultures and religions. Education, culture, and religion can all share the same social space, without cultural and religious communities feeling threatened. The role of the AUN-led Adamawa Peace Initiative was critically important in gaining input and support from key community leaders.

Finally, radio as a communication medium is still a powerful tool of mass communication in much of the world, and is indeed worthy of continued research, particularly its role in education in more impoverished societies.

Impact Stories

In the course of implementing TELA, we were told stories that challenged and inspired us. It is often all too easy to get lost in statistical data. We need to remember that we are talking about children, and about our ability to impact their lives. To open new futures to them. In conclusion, let us share a few of their stories.

Jamilu Umar

13-year-old Jamilu Umar arrived at his listening center at Mbamba community with 48 other IDP children, only to find out that their facilitator was absent. Instead of going back home, they all went to a nearby house and begged for a radio receiver so they could listen to the program. They got one, but there was a problem. It only had a copper hanger for an antenna. The makeshift antenna wasn’t strong enough to receive the local Gotel FM radio signals. To improve reception, Umar himself acted as the antenna, holding the radio antenna stump throughout the 45-minute duration of the program. With neither facilitator nor workbooks, all 48 children sat down quietly and listened to Mallam Nuhu ye ja Makaranta.

“When we arrived” young Umar explained simply, “we did not see the facilitator so we went to a house on the other side of the fence and begged them to give us a radio so we can listen. We didn’t want to miss the lesson today.”

Janet and Grace

One of our listening center facilitators told the story of two students in her listening center, Janet Francis and Grace Zanimai. Since it simply was not possible for the Centers to admit all the children who wanted to attend due to space and resource constraints, these two assumed the responsibility of teaching other children who did not have the opportunity to attend the program. Janet would regularly gather her friends and children in the neighborhood and teach them all that she could remember from the lessons from the previous day. Grace taught her younger ones at home when she returned from the radio lessons. Grace and Janet, like many other children, memorized their radio lessons and songs and delivered them in their own way to their own friends and neighbors when they returned home.

Mamoudou Abdulkadir

After obtaining the consent of his custodian, Mallam Mohammadou, 17-year-old Mamoudou Abdulkadir, an Almajirai boy, registered in our Feed and Read program in December 2015. At the time he enrolled, Mamoudou had no prior knowledge whatsoever of the English language, but he was eager to learn and quickly grasped letter sounds, and two and three letter words; he could read the analogue clock and identified titles of his textbooks and workbooks all within his first quarter on the program. Mamoudou did not miss any class and was always the first to arrive at the learning center. This earned him the title of “class head boy” which came with the responsibility of looking out for the younger boys in the class. His curiosity and interest in learning was so high that he would plead with his facilitator to take home the workbooks after classes. On completing the TELA program, Mamoudou decided to enroll in a formal primary school in Yola. His Mallam allowed him to do so. In September 2016, he started primary school: he was almost 18 years old, the oldest pupil the school had ever enrolled.

Mamoudou and Janet, Grace and Umar, all that these children ask of us is that we teach them, that they be allowed to learn. We must continue to find effective ways and means for them to do so. Their lives, all of our lives, are at stake.

Note

  1. 1.

    The Community Development course, Literacy Using Radio, was taught over three semesters with three sets of students. We had an average of 25 students in the class each semester. Students participated in the formative research, literacy and numeracy curriculum, design and development of radio characters, storylines, scripting, voicing, and music production.