The Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, Government of India organized the fifth Community Radio Sammelan
from 16-18 March, 2015 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in association with OneWorld
Foundation India. I had an opportunity to lead
a breakout session on ‘Community Radio for Community Learning’; where about 50
operational community radio stations participated and shared their views. Five
community radios enumerated the methodology on the programme ‘Radio
Mathematics’, a project funded by the NCSTC,
DST, Govt. of India. The stations utilize
different formats, including story telling, drama, quiz to make the programme
on mathematics for their learners. For innovative programming in the series,
Radio JU got a national award in the last Sammelan. Pariyar
CR, Shyamla Vaani, Alwar ki Awaz, IIT Kanpur are a few stations, who have been
producing programmes to provide knowledge on mathematics to the community
members. Some stations also developed hundreds of episodes on the series
‘Science for Women’. It is appropriate to mention
here that in India, out of 179 operational community radio stations, the
maximum stations are based in educational institutions. Hence, these stations
have also a mandate to deliver educational
programmes through their radio stations. On the contrary, a few stations are
adopting the Community Learning Programme (CLP) method developed by the Commonwealth of Learning for providing
non-formal learning opportunities to the community members. Waqt ki Awaz, Apna Radio, Gurgaon ki Awaz,
Alfaz-e-Mewat are among the stations, who have been producing learning
programmes using the CLP method. An organization involved in CLP training, Maraa also provided their inputs in the
session.
While moderating the session, it was
observed, majority of stations believe that providing knowledge to the
community members is a responsibility of a
community radio. I had the same feeling, when I was the station manager of the
first community radio of the northeastern region of India for about four years.
But, what should be the role of a community
radio in community learning? Should community radio play
a role of a teacher in the community? I sincerely believe, no. Community
radio should be a platform of co-learning, not the top-down model of knowledge
dissemination.

The group finalized a set of
recommendations for the community radio stations while producing the programmes
on community learning- need for the current learning programmes to be local and
move beyond the awareness/ instructional mode to a more dialogue oriented form
of learning; need to connect national or state government programmes or schemes
(like sanitation, maternal health) with the local needs for which community
radios can be a potential tool using various learning models and need for
proper capacity building of the stations in the domain of participative
learning tools through existing/ adapted courses and hands on workshops etc.
The final recommendations and the details of the discussion will be included in
the proceeding of the Sammelan. It is indeed
an important area for the community radio station. (Photo credit: Alfaz-e-Mewat).
Cite this article as-
APA
Dutta, A. (2015, March 19). Community Radio for Community Learning. Community Communications. https://www.comcomm.org/2015/03/community-radio-for-community-learning.html
MLA
Dutta, Ankuran. "Community Radio for Community Learning." Community Communications, 19 Mar. 2015, www.comcomm.org/2015/03/community-radio-for-community-learning.html. Accessed ..........
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