THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL RADIO BROADCASTING FOR ADULT EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Radio is a broadcast media meant to disseminate audio and video signal,
messages, information or programs to wide range of audience. It is predicated on the premise that behaviours displayed most times by adults and adolescents have received lots of condemnation for not conforming to moral and legal standards of the society. It has been established that the mass media, especially the Broadcast platform, have bee discovered to be the most tenacious, pragmatic and efficacious channel in achieving attitudinal change and enhancing pro-social behaviour. The study adopts Kotler and Levy’s social marketing theory as the most appropriate framework to observe why the Nigerian audience listen to and watch Broadcast Entertainment – Education Programmes Radio and television are already playing a role in educating the populace non-formally through various educational channels and programs, but there is significant potential to capitalize on their ability to enhance development and learning curriculum content among secondary school students.

CHAPTER ONE

          INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

The issue that has continued to affect the issue of development in most Third World countries is literacy level of the citizenry. Modern technology has transformed the way students learn and interact with their environment. Radio and Television are broadcast media meant to disseminate audio and video signal, messages, information or programs to wide range of audience. Broadcast media are regarded as eye and hear of the people because they look for information on behalf of the general public. Media have always formed an important part of modern education since the beginning of the twentieth century. From print to radio, television, and today’s Web-enabled e-learning, each medium has been seen as a potential solution for the problems, inadequacies and certain ills of education. Invariably, the purpose of inducting media into education has been two-fold: to increase the reach and thereby access; and to enrich the quality of educational content. The birth of a new medium has not however, supplanted the previous one; since each has found its own niche.

Broadcast media on its own help the populace to be conscious and aware of various events
near and far away from them. Radio and television are now inseparable with the society
because of the numerous roles they play including educational function. Educational
broadcasting refers to television programming and radio programming providing or related
to courses of study. The term “educational” is also applied at times to other programs that
are particularly enlightening, informative or intellectually stimulating. Educational
broadcast is the term given to the medium’s use in formal learning systems, whether
primary or higher education (Berman, 2008). It is typically used as a means for course
material delivery, and often integrated with various kinds of interaction: for example, in
classrooms, discussion groups, or via the telephone. Community radio, on the other hand,
involves informal learning processes whereby communities plan, own, and operate their
own radio stations. The informal learning topics of community radio typically include child
nutrition, family planning, and agricultural tips. Community radio necessarily involves a
non-profit enterprise, community ownership and participation, and usually a participatory
approach to learning.
Wherever the mass media have been established, education has been put at the forefront
of the fruits to be reaped or as on objective for the development of the mass media. Since
education has been linked to the creation of communication systems that can reach wide
populations, educational broadcasting has been identified with development and nation
building. However, they are powerful socializing agents to reach large heterogeneous and
widely dispersed audience. It is observed that millions of people over huge areas can be
reached very quickly via radio and television by spreading news, information,
entertainment and so on. Indeed, they represent powerful tools of socializing people and
students in particular through their different educative programs which increase the level
of literacy in the society.
Sambo (2012) noted that broadcast media are tools that invest the past with an air of
reality. They provide the learners with realistic experience, which capture their attention
and help in the understanding of the historical phenomena. They appeal to the mind
through the visual auditory senses. Also, Ortyoyande (2006) noted that we receive
knowledge through our senses; they also noted that if we hear we forget, if we see we
remember, and if we do something we know it. So, access to educational radio and
television makes learning process more effective and productive. Also, those educational
programs can be recorded to benefit Learners by listening and viewing the lesson programs
severally, hence aids their retention. Therefore, educational radio and television encourage
learning, make it easier and interesting.

It should be noted that radio and television can effectively be utilized to teach individual or public the norms and values of society and reinforce same. Recent development in television has drastically affected educational procedure for improved quality of education offered to students. Television resource in instructional delivery will serve dual purposes and more efficient classroom instruction (Onabajo, 2000). The advancement which radio and television offer in education can be evident through accessibility to educative programs and instructional delivery like quiz, debate and so on. Productive situational delivery enhances learners’ creative and intellectual development through the use of television images, graphics, audio, test motion for high quality learning. Babalola (2005) states that radio and television offers five distinct roles in education which are: Socialisation, Religion, Subject, Brain test and Sex Education.

Educational television has been discovered to have profound effect on speech training among young learners (Gocen & Okur, 2013). According to Gocen and Okur (2013) learners mimick what they see on television and as such remember more of the things they watch than the ones they learn in the classroom. Also, their study after studying the attitudes of students involved in the survey of effect of TV on speech, it is obvious that they do imitate how people talk on TV and thereby think that their friends will like them better that way. Also, students who took this survey point out that they like when their friends imitate TV characters.

One of television’s most obvious characteristics is its visual aspect. Humans intuitively grasp the power of images to convey meaning, as can be seen in the old adage that values a picture at a thousand times the value of a word. Research in the past two decades has proven what we intuitively know: our brains deal with images differently than print (Saglik & Ozturk, 2001). Words are processed in the neocortex where the higher thinking capability of the brain resides. Pictures, however, are handled in the limbic system, rapidly, and trigger instinct, emotion, and impulse (Omenesa, 1997). Because brains are programmed to remember experiences that have an emotional component, television has a powerful ability to relay experience through the emotions evoked by images. The mass media exist to fulfil three basic functions: to inform, to entertain and to educate the audience
(Mughal, 2011). These three key functions are intricately linked together and work in synergy with a view to achieving the overall objectives of information gathering and dissemination tasks. The main objective of any broadcast programme under whatever genre is to influence the audience positively through the impartation of the right information, education or entertainment that would bring out the best in the „audience members‟ in line
with societal norms and values (Bittner, 1989). It is in a bid to achieve these tasks that broadcast media have developed a strategy for making their messages more effective and influential using a combination of education and entertainment known as “Entertainment-Education” or a fusion of information with entertainment referred to as “infotainment”. Singhal and Brown (1996, p.19) assert that broadcast entertainment media, whether radio or television, have a high potential to effect behavioural changes and educate the public on a variety of social topics:
HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, maternal and child health, gender equality, environmental conservation, literacy, politics, agricultural issues, social issues and others. This view is substantiated by communication experts the world over (Singhal & Rogers, 1999; Mughal, 2011; Schramm, 1964; Bankole, 1999; Brown & Singhal, 1999; Vaughan & Rogers, 2000; Abdulla, 2004). .

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Singhal and Brown (1996) affirm that an adult in the United States of America spends 40 hours
on the average watching or listening to Broadcast Entertainment-Education Programmes and spends $30 a week on same. Similarly, Nigerian audience spend a large percentage of their time daily on Broadcast Entertainment Education Programmes on the broadcast media with the purpose of getting abreast with issues of behavioural disposition. In Nigeria alone, many broadcast stations have sprung up helping to educate and getting Nigerians
informed especially on issues that pertain to cultural, socio-economic and psychological variables with programme content titles like Cockcrow at Dawn, Behind the Clouds, Super Story, Hills and Valleys, Winds of Destiny, Sura de Tailor, The Masquerade, New Masquerade, After the Storm, The Village Headmaster, Tales by Moonlight, Sesame Square, which is the Nigerian version of Sesame Street, One Thing at a Time, Jenifa’s Diary, The Burning Spear, Do Something, Story Story, New Man Street, Papa Ajasco and Company, Naija How Una See Am, Dem Say Dem Say, Make We Hear You, Gafili Gadoki, Jakan Magori, Power Shele, Your Health, Radio Link. The list is endless and more are still being produced on a daily basis. These Broadcast
Entertainment-Education Programmes are designed and transmitted to help inculcate social values and effect changes in human behavioural dispositions but even at that our society tends to experience behaviours that have failed to conform to moral, social, legal and psychological expectations in society

1.3       Objective of the Study

The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of educational radio broadcasting for adult education in nigeria.

The specific objectives are to:

1. examine the use educational radio broadcasting among adult learners in Nigeria;
2. examine the influence of educational radio broadcasting on skills acquisition among adult learners in Nigeria;
3. investigate the influence of frequency of educational radio broadcasting use on literacy
4. examine the influence of gender on skill acquisition among adult learners in Nigeria

1.4       Research Questions

This study answered the following research questions:

1. Does the pattern of educational radio broadcasting used among adult learners in enhanced learning?
2. Does educational radio broadcasting influence adult education acquisition among learners?
3. To what degree does frequency of educational radio broadcasting influence literacy skills acquisition among adult learners in Lagos State?
4. To what extent does gender influence literacy skill acquisition among adult learners in Lagos State?

1.5       Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance:

Ho₁      There is no significant relationship between educational radio broadcasting and  skills acquisition among adult learners in Nigeria.

Ho₂   There is no significant difference in the level of skills acquired among adult learners in Nigeria

1.6       Scope of the Study

the scope of the study covers

The impact of educational radio broadcasting for adult education in Nigeria

1.7       Significance of the Study

Past studies on educational broadcasting revealed a lack of cooperation amongst and within the various organizations involved in past educational programs. Studies have also revealed that such educational programs have ignored the target audience at every stage of the programme. The findings of this study will therefore provide empirical facts to operators and practitioners of communication in Lagos State and other states of the Federation on the need to involve the target audience at every stage of program production.

More importantly, the inherent dangers posed by the absence of cooperation among the various agencies involved in the conceptualization, production and execution of educational programs and subsequent failure to assess the success of the program collectively owing to lack of team spirit are those issues that are addressed in the study. As such the findings of this study would be beneficial to agents of development communication. Lastly, this work provides a platform for tertiary institutions offering mass communication to adopt practical approaches to courses in the broadcast sequence, especially courses bordering on educational broadcasting. The study would also add to the body of knowledge as well as provide springboard for future studies.

1.8       Operational Definition of Terms

Educational Broadcasting: in this study, educational programs are those radio or television programs that either teach morals or values in an entertaining way (like drama, folklore among others) and those programs designed in line with formal school learning like Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Instructional programmes.

Instructional Media: simply refers to radio and television stations airing programmes with instructional intent.

 Instruction: instruction is a deliberate arrangement of experience(s) to help a learner achieve a desirable change in performance.

Instructional Material: as used in this study, instructional material is a collection of item designed for teaching/learning. In this case the instructional material use for Mooko Mooka is called the primer.

Learning: learning is a lasting change in behaviors or beliefs that results from experience.

Listening: The researcher adopted the International Listening Association definition of listening which states that listening is the process of recognizing receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding too spoken and/or nonverbal messages.

Effectiveness: this refers to the outcome of listening to educational radio programme.

Illiteracy:  As used in this study refers to those who can not read and write their language of communication

Literacy: literacy is the ability to read and write, with understanding, a short simple sentence about one’s daily life.

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