Sustaining the educational sector through radio as a learning tool amongst secondary school students during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

Providing quality and sustainable education for all is the ultimate goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 2030. Education gives people the knowledge and skills they need to stay healthy, get jobs and foster tolerance. The global education crisis is tied to the COVID-19 outbreak which severely affected children’s learning and well-being. Lockdown during the COVID-19 emergencies was known to have serious effects on the continuity of the studies of secondary school students. This study looked at various challenges to educational broadcasting from radio stations in the state during the period of COVID-19 Lockdown, investigate how radio programmes align with the school curriculum and to know how radio education broadcast help students out of class room during COVID-19 Lockdown. Descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The sample size of 100 teachers and 200 students from the selected secondary schools in Osun were arrived at through Taro Yamani. The research instrument used for data collection was questionnaire. The study therefore found out that radio educational programmes have impacted positively on the academic achievement of learners in secondary schools. These educational learning programmes helped in mitigating idleness and non-study of learners during the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. The study therefore recommended that the radio broadcasting station should enable source of information to increase educational programme, and also that the government of Osun state should encourage online lessons through social media and other online platforms.