Support Technology for Educators and Parents (STEP)

The STEP radio programmes consist of thirty-minute segments featuring a cast of local characters engaging in games, stories, songs, and group work. Through the radio programmes, first and second-graders learn Malagasy, mathematics, and French.

According to the organisers, the programmes are broadcast on national and regional stations, so anyone with a radio can pick them up. In addition, to engage the widest audience, the programmes are produced in both Malagasy and French, with schoolchildren acting the young parts and EDC local  employees speaking the adult roles.

A scriptwriting team of five local educators worked closely with STEP organisers to ensure that the content conforms to the national curriculum and that the pedagogy is sound. Project staff also invited parent groups to test segments before they aired, soliciting feedback and suggestions for improvement. According to the organisers, parents were very supportive of the project, and gave significant feedback into what they wanted more of and what to change.

According to the organisers, the programmes provide structured support to primary teachers throughout the country, even those in the most isolated regions, in how to implement the active, intellectually engaging instructional practices, while ensuring that students learn more effectively. The programmes guide teachers on setting up group work, asking open-ended questions, and other potentially unfamiliar activities via "radio teachers" who model these methods in their lessons. STEP organisers say that this is very important as fifty percent of the teaching force in Madagascar lacks formal training.

At the end of each radio lesson, the "radio teachers" speak directly to their classroom counterparts in simple, straightforward language, reviewing the day’s activities, explaining why they should be effective, and offering ideas for building on them. According to the organisers, many teachers have found this very useful, and find they are better able to learn about and understand active teaching methods through these programmes.

Education, Children.

According to the organisers, the programmes were originally intended to reach 600 schools, but the Ministry of Education wanted to broadcast them nationwide; beginning in 2007, the programmes were being broadcast in 20,000 schools across the country.

Recent studies have shown that as many as 75% of students in grades 1 and 2 tune in to the programmes on a regular basis, despite facing limiting factors such as unreliability of radio broadcast schedule, inability to capture a clear signal, insufficient numbers of radios to allow all students to listen.

A recent study on the STEP programme revealed that 90% of teachers who follow the broadcasts found the programmes to be of excellent or good quality and were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the quality of the accompanying teacher’s guides that they had been given.

The International Education Systems (IES) Division, based in EDC's Washington Office, provides services to education sector partners in developing countries. Its staff of international and local employees currently works in twenty-five developing countries. They work on the development of education systems at the national level as well as on initiatives with limited scope and very specific purposes, such as small community-based learning systems.

IES’ primary focus is on improving teaching and learning. The emphasis is usually basic literacy and numeracy for children and adults. In addition, they place importance on building life skills for orphans and other vulnerable children, on education about HIV/AIDS and systems that address its consequences, on early childhood development, and on ways to address the broader learning needs of communities.

IEC uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as online learning portals and digital video to improve the exchange of skills and information. They also employ more traditional technologies such as radio to deliver interactive instruction where school systems have broken down or never existed, or to reach refugees, nomads, and children who cannot afford to go to school.