In an effort to ensure that children continue to learn as schools remain closed due to COVID-19, the Ministry of Education has distributed more than 200 000 radios to rural communities.
Due to many reasons, most children in the rural areas cannot access online learning. This has led to the rural pupilsā poor performances in public examinations. However, education officers blame the performance on the closure of schools following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic last year.
After learning that most rural pupils could not access online learning, the government decided to give rural communities radios so that pupils could access online radio lessons. Mr Taungana Ndoro, director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in an interview said 200 000 radios have been distributed to communities in rural areas to enable pupils in rural areas to access radio lessons.
Mr Ndoro said, āMore than 200 000 radios have been distributed to enable rural pupils to access radio lessons. We are being assisted by one of the development partners UNICEF and the radios allow learners to access news and radio lessons.ā
According to Mr Ndoro, the Ministry was targeting communities where most of the families had no radios. While thanking the Ministry, Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Edgar Moyo said the radios will go a long way in mitigating access to learning challenges faced by pupils from disadvantaged communities.
While concluding, Deputy Minister said: āRadio, besides being a vehicle that develops learnersā auditory senses, also develops learnersā knowledge, skills and attitudes. Radios also develops the learnersā perception of the world around him or her by stimulating the mind to the imagination.Ā With imagination, learners are then also exposed to the 21st century skills of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration and problem solving.
