–as MoE takes learning to the next level

THE Ministry of Education (MoE) is expected to launch its education radio station, 99.9FM, early next year, as another avenue of getting learning content out to learners in varying parts of the country.

The channel will be entirely dedicated to providing educational and teaching material, and, like the Guyana Learning Channel (GLC), will be managed by the National Centre for Educational Resource and Development (NCERD).

“We will launch, shortly, 99.9 FM’; that will be a radio channel dedicated to educational content, that is currently being set up with a new studio, as well as the technical and logistical arrangements that have to be made. But we’ve already bought those services,” Minister of Education Priya Manickchand said Monday, while speaking at a media brunch.

The coming on stream of the radio station, she explained, will supplement the simultaneous expansion of the GLC, which is being expanded to include five additional channels, all of which will be dedicated to 24-hour educational content.

The development of unconventional means of teaching has been fast-tracked over the past few months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, where mandated school closures highlighted the need for alternative modes of education delivery outside of the traditional face-to-face classrooms.

After schools were closed in March 2020, in September of that year, the ministry began utilising the GLC as part of a multifaceted educational delivery approach that allowed for schools to be reopened virtually.

Timetable teaching for all the grade levels were being delivered on the GLC, however, the ministry ran into issues with having to provide teaching material for the varying subject areas across the 11 grade school levels, and two nursery school levels.

Additionally, the existing facility had proven to be somewhat deficient in terms of accessibility to children across the country, particularly those in the hinterland and riverine communities.

As such, the ministry took a decision to expand the Learning Channel to better cater for the different levels of learning, and the more far-flung locales.

Some $664.697 million was catered for in the 2021 Budget to go towards the roll-out of the expansion of the Learning Channel.