Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

ENHANCING QUALITY OF EDUCATION THROUGH MASS MEDIA

Saturday, October 28, 2006
By Mandy Navasero

THE USE OF CARABAOS, TV sets and satellite dishes to enhance the quality of basic education was recently highlighted in a series of presentations in the United States. 

Rina Lopez-Bautista, president of Knowledge Channel Foundation, Inc. (KCFI), shared her experience in the use of cable television to improve comprehension of basic subjects in elementary and high schools in the country.

Session

Addressing the roundtable session on science and technology at the 59th Annual United Nations Department of Public Information and Non-government Organization Conference in New York last Sept. 7, Lopez-Bautista recounted her groups adventures in bringing the Knowledge Channels curriculum-based programs from the northernmost to the southernmost portions of the Philippines.

We even had to employ carabaos to deliver TV sets and satellite dishes to schools. Outrigger boats had to carry our equipment through pirate-infested waters, Rina added.

But, as we saw the bright faces of children watching educational TV for the first time, we knew that this was work that we should do, Lopez-Bautista stressed.

Research

In 1999, Rina decided to help address poverty using mass media, specifically her familys broadcast and cable TV networks: ABS-CBN and SkyCable. She zeroed in on the public educational system after research indicated a crisis there.

Richard Berman, who moderated the discussion, was so touched by Rinas story about the struggles of Hilmarie, a Knowledge Channel beneficiary from the highlands, that he offered the girl a four-year scholarship to Manhattanville College in New York.

Lopez-Bautista called on the UN, affiliate organizations and donor institutions to look at KCFIs work, and to invest in the country.