Education project to turn TVs into teachers
In most homes with children, television is a luxury to be enjoyed on the weekends and long holidays. But tonight local officials are planning to use the popular medium as a teaching tool in an attempt to make learning fun. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This week, the Belize District Association of Primary School Principals and two international consultants have been busy brainstorming about a project that would turn televisions into teachers.
Delarai Sanchez, President, B.D.A.P.P.
?I look at the children and I see them just looking at it on the television and nobody was misbehaving. They were interested.?
For more than a decade, Delarai Sanchez has been trying to turn her idea of an interactive curriculum into reality. Today, Delarai?s dream is about to come through because of a trip to her cousin in New York, whose neighbours just happened to be television producers.
Randolph Sturrup, Consultant
?My background as a manager of product development for Nickolodeon for two years, I oversaw Dora the Explorer and the spin off, Diego so my background is education. I understand the skills in like creating a program that?s entertaining and educational, so I was very excited and immediately on board in supporting it when I heard about it.?
Majorie Clarke, Consultant
?One of the pillars of education is discovery and the children do this discovery, the children are the ones engaged, they will learn the concepts better because more kids want to see themselves on television. And if you have a representative of every culture, everybody is going to want to be engaged because they see themselves, and see themselves reflected on television.?
The idea is to use the Belizean experience to teach math, reading comprehension, and writing skills.
Majorie Clarke
?You can teach a mathematic skill by having students go to your archaeological sites and talk to your archaeologists and he can describe how the ruins are built. In that you are learning two sets of lessons, learning your culture and you are learning something about maths.?
With the support of more than a hundred principals around the country, the educational initiative is designed to improve academic performance, especially in national exams. But the project team says the show will be ?must see TV? for children and their parents.
Delarai Sanchez
?Parents will be able to help their children because we have to face it that some parents did not get to finish school and they are not able to help their children. Yes school is responsible for the students learning but it?s a two fold thing, it?s the parent and the school. And I think that if we show these lessons on the air, then the parents that did not get to finish, their school or probably didn?t get a concept, will learn it much faster due to maturity and they will able to assist their children.?
According to Sanchez, the pilot program is scheduled to debut in mid-January on local television stations.
Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
The Ministry of Education, the Belize National Teachers’ Union and the National Institute for Culture and History have all pledged their full support for the television show project. However, it must be noted that funding has yet to be secured.
