Voices for development: The Tanzanian national radio study campaigns

Abstract

This chapter traces the development of radio study groups in Tanzania from their initial unsophisticated beginnings in Moshi and Mbeya in 1967 to the massive organization involved in the latest health education campaign. The idea of radio listening groups was born in Tanzania in 2 different institutions and at opposite ends of the country at about the same time. The Cooperative Education Center in Moshi founded in 1964 began with simple correspondence study guides as the main education method and then decided to support and enliven these courses by radio programs which presented the essential ideas and information in an oral form. In 1967 a similar experiment was launched in the Mbeya region. The 1970 study campaign on Tanzanias elections was an attempt to utilize various educational techniques to arouse civic interest and spread information about an event of great national political importance. From the perspective of educational methodology it achieved several interesting results. It succeeded in a limited fashion in reaching people in nearly all areas of the country and it made available to rural adult education workers the tool with which they could carry out an important but unfamiliar job. Yet in the final analysis the success of the study campaign depends on its impact on the development of Tanzanians understanding of and participation in their democratic rights. This is not possible to assess. The pilot study campaigns in 1969 and 1970 had centered on important national events. The year 1971 was to culminate in the celebration of Tanzanias 10th anniversary of Independence. It thus was considered appropriate to link the 1971 radio study campaign to this national celebration. The feeling was that the campaign should attempt to do 2 things: to create a deeper sense of national awareness; and by tracing the development of Tanzania from the distant past up until the present to highlight the achievements since Independence. The study materials consisted of 3 elements: a series of radio programs a textbook and a study guide. The campaign achieved a large measure of success. The fact that groups were established all over the country indicate that interest was aroused on a national scale. The campaign reached its intended audience the rural section of the population. Another area which was thought to have been satisfactory is that of training. This was the 1st time that a 2-stage training program had been tried. The evaluation provides evidence that people can learn from this method as indicated by the statistically significant in socres from the pretest to the posttest.

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