Plans are underway to integrate education with entertainment on Pakistani FM radio stations.
In a ceremony held in the federal capital on Tuesday, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) launched a distance education radio programme for Pakistan.
The ‘Learning by Ear’ programme consists of two series of five 10-minute long episodes in a radio soap format.
It will be aired in Urdu and Pashto on 63 Pakistani FM radio stations and will highlight issues such as the importance of education and role of women in a country’s development.
The programme is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and was brought to Pakistan after successful runs in African countries and Afghanistan.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Alexander Freund, head of DW’s Asia division, said the programme is known to work in countries like Pakistan, where the tradition of storytelling is alive and well.
“This kind of educational docudrama is a very easy way of promoting important issues related to gender or education for all,” Freund said. “It works because the storytelling is not complicated and the stories are effective.”
The first two series in the radio programme were produced over a 15-day period last December by a team of Pakistani writers and actors in Peshawar, Project Coordinator Dr Altaf Khan said.
“The idea was to produce a soap that is progressive and developmental but at the same time satisfies cultural needs and doesn’t conflict with local realities,” said Khan, who used to head the University of Peshawar Journalism Department.
The first five-episode series uses the story of a female schoolteacher and a village leader who denounces schools for girls to highlight the importance of women’s education in a community.
The radio programme might seem like a rebuttal to the use of FM radio for religious propaganda in the North-west of Pakistan, especially Swat, but Dr Khan said the way they developed the themes is “not confrontational in any way.” The episodes are, in fact, designed to start a reasonable dialogue in the community, he said.
Anne Hufnagel, DW’s head of distribution for Asia, said 12 to 25-year-olds are the target audience for Learning by Ear Pakistan.
The launching ceremony was attended by representatives of several radio stations and production companies including Radio Pakistan, Smile FM and Blackbox Sounds. The first broadcast of the programme was aired during the ceremony by FM 100.
In addition to being aired on radio stations, the series will be available on the stations’ websites and DW’s Urdu and Pashto web pages.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2012.
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While acknowledge to the great contribution to the DW Mr. Freund Alexander, Project Coordinator Dr. Altaf Khan, Anne Hufnagel, and the German Foreign Office for the financial support. As member of Goethe Institut I noticed absence of technical, technology data base from EU and Germany, as the GTZ which is very important. In this reference I would suggest the collaboration of GTZ you should consider availability of online data bases access in Pakistan, courtesy the financial assistance from the German Foreign Office. I have access to online databases for a host of publications, journals, books, libraries, etc., courtesy USIS. This has contributed tremendously in Pakistan. Similar access if provided by EU and Germany will help Pakistan a lot. I would suggest the programs on regional languages as well for their outreach, for vocational programs for youth development, training in basic skills leading to employment. Several programs are already in place, but DW would possibly play major role. Some programs are already yn by Government for carpentry, auto tune up, etc., are organised. I suggest further program by DW as use of power tools in carpentry, would provide awareness of power tools, their applications would lead to generation of employment in Pakistan.