IRIN
AFGHANISTAN: UNESCO supports educational radio and TV
8 July 2004


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 8 July (IRIN) - A new radio and television programme supported by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) looks set to address the dire needs of public awareness and civil
education in remote parts of Afghanistan.

"This is a hugely significant project because the educational needs of
Afghanistan are so great," Martin Hadlow, the UNESCO country director,
told IRIN in the Afghan capital Kabul. "Not only that, but it is vital to
reach the unreachable."

He explained that the project aimed at ensuring that people living in
remote areas, the sick, the infirm and those who had to stay at home had
the chance to participate in formal and informal educational
opportunities. In addition, the use of modern media, especially radio, as
a tool in education, facilitated efforts to span geographical barriers
such as mountains and deserts.

In the 1970s and 1980s, broadcasting in Afghanistan was a major non-formal
educational resource. In the remote valleys of this vast and mountainous
country, villagers and farmers could tune in to hear farming tips and ways
to improve cultivation. Basic literacy programmes and course-related
skills training for teachers were also broadcast. However, when the civil
conflict came to Kabul, the Educational Radio and TV (ERTV) centre was all
but destroyed and educational transmissions almost came to an end.

Hadlow said that UNESCO had undertaken the project with US $2.5 million in
funding from the government of Italy, to completely upgrade and
rehabilitate distance education services in the country.

"This programme is very important in a war-torn country like Afghanistan
in that most of the people are uneducated. They cannot read, therefore
radio and TV can be very effective for them," Rahmatullah Begana, ERTV's
general director told IRIN, noting that they wanted to expand their
programmes, with the support of UNESCO, throughout the country in an
effort to help urban and rural people alike.

Hadlow added they were looking to start an experimental FM radio and
television service in Kabul for educational broadcasting - something that
could hopefully expand. Programming would include a substantial number of
non-formal educational areas such as legal issues, democracy-building,
literacy and even life-skills advice for health workers, farmers and other
people living in remote areas of the country.

UNESCO has a policy of "lifelong learning" and believes this encompasses a
multitude of topics. "This is not just about 'chalk and talk' formal
classroom teaching. This is about new ways of learning and new ways of
teaching, thus helping Afghanistan to move ahead," Hadlow noted.

Some 70 staff members of the ERTV centre have now relocated to the
building from their former offices in Afghanistan Radio-Television and are
already producing a range of new educational programmes.

Under the project, UNESCO has already provided three months of intensive
training in broadcasting techniques, the use of digital equipment,
programme production, English language proficiency, as well as computer
literacy. In the next phase of the project, 10 ERTV staff members will
receive advanced training at the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting
Development (AIBD) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The newly renovated ERTV facility was officially opened on 1 July by
Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO.


IRIN-Asia
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Email: IrinAsia@irin.org.pk

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004


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