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hi this is Grace Chiuye from Malawi

1. How you determine the different educational needs of children with disabilities in this pandemic.2. What could be the effective strategies to respond to the educational need of Children with disabilities?3. What are the effective options to engage children in reading activities during the age of COVID-19 in developing countries where online and distance learning strategy doesn't work?

Here's the follow-up (including the recording) from last week's webinar: https://www.basiced.org/news/2020/6/18/bec-amp-grn-hold-webinar-reading-instruction-in-the-age-of-covid-19-planning-for-the-present-and-the-future

@Seema thanks for your questions!

Could the team please share how listenership is tracked? Thanks

A question that came up in either this or a related webinar was that some families of the most vulnerable families do not have radios through which to access programming. Could part of the effort to extend radio programming be the procurement and distribution of radios to those very vulnerable families?

Marcia, what is the radio dosage. What is level of parental time commitment?

Marcia, what level of guidance is giving to parents/caregivers directly?

Our programs are 30 minutes 3 times weekly with rebroadcasts 3 times a week. Parents/caregivers are asked to sit with their children during the program and we broadcast a caregiver support session to explain their role. We are also working with partners and our regional teams to continue to support parents and teachers via WhatsApp (we have 9 videos to share), SMS, and direct calls to parents and teachers. We are creating an e-learning resource for teachers with GES. Feedback from listeners will be monitored to adjust and improve lessons. Also, we are monitoring listenership as well.

Marcia how are you managing monitoring of the radio broadcasts and how are the cost structures like?

We have a project team that is monitoring the broadcasts. Ghana Education Service has an MoU with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation so we have use of a studio and producer at no cost. We pay a significantly reduced rate for broadcasting and there are 26 stations nationally that broadcast the program daily. GBC has also requested that we upload the recorded lessons and all worksheets to their website for community, parent/caregiver access. The Ghana digital library will contain all lessons as well.

we are indeed providing solar radios to a subset families unable to access the broadcasts

Fred, can you talk more about how we integrated Socio emotional learning concepts and health and hygiene concepts into the programs as well?

For parents, we broadcast an initial caregiver lesson to explain the program and refer to both caregivers and learners during the lessons. We have a caregiver/teacher support team in partnership with GES and other partners that will provide additional support to gather information on what they need to better support their children.

we are on a similar schedule 3x 30 minutes lessosn a week

what exactly was done to make radio programs interactive?

what kind of support did you provide to the teachers/parents/caregivers and how often?

In Senegal, the USAID LPT program is developing reading lessons for radio in 3 national languages.

How do you teach reading during this time of the Covid 19 pandemic to children whose parents do not know how to read themselves?

Are there any offline version of videos in application to teach children ?

How do you support families to ensure that they access the 90 sec - 3 minute videos using whatsapp?

I have prepared one powerpoint with audio and students are enjoying this but not all students are not getting this due to lack of android mobile in their home. But this powerpoint with audio with the text book is really helping. If can be read in off line mode after download.

I am glad to hear about the GES central role in the work for the Ghana radio programming. In EDC's work with the Mali Ministry of Ed, the relationships developed over time have been central in communicating what are the realistic expectations about using various types of programming. There is a lot of enthusiasm right now, and it is essential that we at least plan for reinforcing Ministry capacities for radio and other forms of remote instruction. Perhaps BEC partners can work together to develop a toolkit for strengthening Ministry capacity.

Do you plan to conduct a post-Covid assessment of the participants’ competencies?

to try and answer some of the questions. the interactive radio programs contain different characters who are present in each lesson. there is time in each lesson for interactive excercises, like singing, repeating for the students, with a role for someone inside the house to help guide the student

@Bishwa that sounds like a great idea…!

we are exploring videos as well but have not produced them yet

Hello Evans, we have regional teams and many WhatsApp district level platforms that moderators are making accessible to parents. We also are working with partners who can also support access to these videos for those parents who have the technology to access them.

What do you see as the role of the radio-based materials you developed post-COVID?

the family facilitator don't need to know how to read

we also have a free 'short code' for parents to call and interact, because parents don't necessarily use WhatsApp and sms but can make a free call

We are conducting reading assessments with a sample of children and we are conducting parent surveys. Baseline is being conducted now (it may be completed) and we will also conduct an end line to see how learning has improved.

Marcia, how are you conducting these assessments remotely?

@ Marcia Davidson : would you mind to share more about conducting reading assessments remotely?

It would also be good to hear how you are managing the recording of radio lessons, particularly, which people are involved with recording?

@Evans: Our experts work with those from the Ministry of education on the recording, and it is being done in the Ministry studio

That's helpful Fred. Did you have to equip the Ministry of Education studio?

We are conducting student assessments directly following safety protocols and maintaining distance. This is an M&E activity with baseline and endline. If there were a way to review some of the children's work completed on the worksheets during implementation, that would be ideal.

what is your plan for children with different abilities as well as children from hard to reach area where accessibility is an issue

@ Fred Kasongo: Is the project incurring any costs working with Ministry of Education staff?

Thank you, Marcia, for that helpful response!

Agreed, Audrey!

@Evans: The Ministry studio was funded by the governement as well as some partners. The project supported the Ministry with rehab of some rooms at the Ministry division in charge of material production

Again that's helpful Fred

Thank you @Marcia for your response about assessments. Thank you everyone for your contributions.

@Maureen: a stipend for their transport, but the recording is free.

Thanks Fred

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Thank you Fred, Josh and Marcia for your time again today!

Big thank you to our presenters and everyone!

Thanks all

Thank you all.

Thank you!

Thanks everyone for joining us!