Community Media/CCMW/Materials/Good practices

Background: Why this is one of COL's main pillars

The Commonwealth of Learning's purpose is to help Commonwealth governments, institutions and organisations use a variety of technologies to improve and expand education, training and learning in support of development.

As radio remains the most powerful learning medium for marginalised populations in resource-poor areas, the use of grassroots media, especially community radio, has a special place in COL’s programmes.

The community media space includes a repository of good practices in educational media, part of COL’s media capacity building programme. We believe that good practices help us to know what is possible, to inspire us with examples and most importantly to understand how good practices were realised.

Good Practices: Summaries and links for more information

AIDS & You, Radio Toco

The Toco Youth and Sexuality Project (TYSP) has been in existence for the last nine (9) years. Thus far the project has been able to reach approximately 70% of the entire youth population on the Toco coast both in-school and out-of –school cutting across race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender. The project itself is very inclusive, with the peer educators themselves involved in the project coming from these various groups Eight (8) Peer Workers / Educators under the leadership of a Director are engaged in services of, radio programming, information sharing, lectures, interactive presentations and frontline counselling. In 2001, TYSP received the Commonwealth Foundation’s Award of Excellence in the field of HIV/AIDS among young people in the entire 54 members of the Commonwealth. This was an important juncture in the life of the organization, community and project. The TYSP has also been developed as a UNAIDS ‘best practice’.

Hamro Pathsala (Our Classroom), Community Radio Madanpokhara

Hamro Pathshala (Our School) is a local distance education programme for secondary school students run by Community Radio Madanpokhara, a FM station in Mid-Western Nepal. At the outset of the show, in August 2005, more than 75% of students in Palpa District were failing their exams due to poor scores in English, Math and Science. Hamro Pathsala’s goal is to increase pass rates among class ten students in the national school-leaving exams. Designed through a weeklong workshop process that brought together local teachers and radio producers, the programme offers weekly tuition over the radio for students in classes 8-10.