Sierra Leone’s Radio Teaching Programme Helps with Distance and Remote Learning

Freetown was prepared for the school closures that arose pandemics. The interactive Radio Teaching Programme was established during the 2014-16 Ebola crisis making them ready to provide distance schooling to millions of students. During the Ebola outbreak, students were out of school for the larger part of nine months. These were the years before Zoom calls and online learning platforms for schools. Besides, very few households had access to internet technology in Sierra Leone. It was decided that radio programming would be the most efficient method to deliver lessons as it was cost-effective, engaging, and could easily be adapted to local languages. Using funding from the Global Partnership for Education, 80,000 portable radio sets were distributed to learners in 2014. The best teachers were selected to present compelling lessons to 1.8 million learners. It worked well. While the radio teaching programme ended when the Ebola crisis was over, the ministry kept the Education Radio station alive.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA