THE Ministry of Education has reported that responses from 100 students and teachers indicate that the content of the recently piloted Guyana Learning Channel on television has been helpful but needs strengthening in a few areas.
A ministry release said the group expressed the views at a feedback workshop to review the innovation.
The exercise, conducted by the Education Ministry, saw participation from schools in Regions Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara), Four (Demerara/Mahaica), Five (Mahaica/Berbice) and Six (East Berbice/Corentyne).
The ministry said those are the regions that have been able to access the channel at the time it was still in phase one of the process to beam the signal throughout the country.
The report said those who participated in the workshop lauded the showing for all age groups and noted that the programmes are informative, edu-taining and complement and reinforce classroom teaching.
They also said the broadcast is an excellent source of positive influence, especially when compared with the contents of most of the other channels.
Other observations include that the channel facilitates learning involving both parent and children.
“The Mathematics and Science programmes are detailed, stimulate interest in Science and Grammar, expose viewers to other cultures, enhance family life education, cater for students who are not academically inclined but are skills based, serve as a useful guide, in terms of helping teachers to improve their delivery in the classroom and can be an effective tool to address male underachievement.”
The ministry said, apart from those positives, it was suggested that the contents of the learning channel can be improved and several recommendations were made, among them the airing of more locally produced programmes, ones with strong Caribbean focus, on local culture, special holidays, moral and religious values and revision of the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and the various Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects.
The release said an oversight committee, established by the ministry, has taken note of the suggestions put forward and will be moving to strengthen the content of the learning channel, which is modeled after similar public broadcasting services in India, Mexico,  United Kingdom (UK) and United States (U.S.).
It targets pre-schoolers, kindergarten and primary school pupils and secondary school, university and technical and vocational education students.
The Guyana Learning Channel also caters for teachers, early school leavers, lifelong learners, parents, educators, farmers and others interested in “instructional/info-educational programmes” in different areas of interest, the release said.
Meanwhile, installation of the transmission infrastructure is now complete making it accessible to Guyana’s coastal communities.
Similar work in interior locations began this week and will progress as fast as equipment is received from overseas suppliers, the release said.