Benefits to radio education

Benefits to Radio Education
There are several benefits to the use of radio for instructional purposes. Among these is the fact that, when done well, radiocan generate revenue to become self-sustaining. For example, the Sudan Radio Service was compensated by one NGO to create HIV/AIDS content, and has been ableto charge for airtime used for “information announcements."
Brocke-Utne (2001), asks the question “Who in the developing countries benefits from the continueduse of the colonial languages as the languages of instruction?” She goes on to provide the answer: “Certainly not the poor” (p. 115). Having said this,however, the projects cited above would indicate that this can be overcome. Most of the projects listed have successfully used these languages (sometimes inconjunction with local language programming or local personnel) to deliver educational services to rural poor populations. The success of these instructional modelswould seem to indicate that these languages can be used successfully as long as there is support on the ground.
Perhaps the largest single benefit for radioeducation is that it can reach a large population of people in need of educational services. In some cases, projects have the potential to cover as many as13 million students. In most cases, projects are successfully delivering content via radio to populations measured in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
Eachof these benefits would indicate that radio can be an effective educational medium, particularly when other educational options are limited or non-existent.