Broadclass-listen to learn Radio My Best Friend (IRI)

In Pakistan, over 35% of the population is under 14, with 62.3% of illiterate youth and adults being women. Barriers like violence, child marriage, and gender norms hinder female enrollment in schools, while high costs and household responsibilities further exacerbate the issue. Both paid and unpaid work often falls on the shoulders of young girls from families who struggle to afford school fees (HRW, 2018). Further, there are fewer trained teachers, which leads to overcrowded classrooms and lower quality education compared to urban areas (UIS, 2020). Across Pakistan, forces such as political instability, and ethnic and religious violence have impeded the government’s efforts to invest in improvements to education (HRW, 2018). . Despite increased digitalization, unreliable internet and electricity access persists, affecting people including over 1.4 million Afghan refugees and marginalized Pakistani communities. The program addresses these challenges by offering interactive radio broadcasts, bridging educational gaps for both Afghan refugees and vulnerable Pakistani groups. The program has benefitted 500000 direct beneficiaries including children, teachers, Government officials, parents and communities in both formal and non-formal settings including Religious institutions in Pakistan 60% are females. This initiative targets active learning, reaching remote areas, and providing equitable access to education, thereby impacting millions affected by educational disparities locally and globally.

The program is a human centered and data driven radio-based educational initiative. The broadcasts cover topics like literacy, numeracy, health, and hygiene targeting marginalized communities. The programme also integrated art and culture in the learning contents through interesting travelogues, which introduced children with the local culture and artefacts to promote mutual respect and tolerance for cultural diversity of the target areas. Especially where POWER99 Foundation has its interventions for promotion of girls’ education with particular focus on out of school children.

Face-to-face teacher training complements the radio program, reinforcing learned techniques and skills. Moreover, a parenting education component disseminates knowledge on education, child nutrition and reproductive health, fostering dialogue within communities. Robust monitoring ensures program effectiveness.

Originating in 2012 as Broadclass Listen to Learn Interactive, IRI Program, “Radio - My Best Friend” was launched in 45 target districts during the COVID-19 in collaboration with the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MOFE&PT). We employ the services of national and International IRI specialists, professional scriptwriters and teachers collaboratively to develop the content and generate activities and story ideas for programs. Thereby bridging the divide by providing children in underserved communities with access to quality school education.  Each content writer is professionally trained and able to employ teaching methods that are creative, interesting, engaging, and interactive. Its 45-minute radio episodes engage students and families, promoting active participation and relevance to their lives. Radio lessons guide teacher and students through activities, games, and exercises that teach carefully organized knowledge and skills. Through radio broadcasts and community outreach, the program endeavors to bridge educational gaps and promote holistic development across Pakistan.

There is a huge list of successes of program. During implementation, it was noted that parents/ facilitators are using indigenous material during radio lessons. Moreover, students whose first language is not English make used of their first language to develop competency in the English language arts and to develop understanding of content across the curriculum and universal cross cutting themes. The program has provided orientation to adults and facilitators to carry out post- broadcast activities with children. Program showed smooth transition to class room.  Although the target of the program was children who are deprived of their education because of Covid-19, however, when the schools were re-opened the program was adopted by public/private schools, non-formal basic education centers and Madaris to support children with a successful and smooth transition back to school.

 The initiative aims to transform education practices, creating equitable opportunities for marginalized children. Much like the children’s television shows Sesame Street or Mister Rogers in the United States, Radio My Best Friend has broad appeal throughout Pakistan in terms of both its content and its social impact Radio My Best Friend has broad appeal throughout Pakistan in terms of both its content and its social impact that program featured in UNESCO's Effective Literacy and Numeracy Database (LitBase)  SIDA as a case study under "From Radio to Artificial Intelligence

Our solution is designed to serve and significantly impact the lives of children, teachers, families, and communities residing in marginalized areas of Pakistan, particularly those with low-income backgrounds and displaced. In Pakistan, there are widespread concerns about poor academic achievement and school attendance, particularly that of girls and children living in rural areas. The education sector has weak governance and budget constraints, schools lack resources, and teachers are ill-trained and often lack accountability. These constraints are compounded by the entrenched use of pedagogical practices which are not suited to very young children: classes are teacher-led, have limited teacher-child interaction, and lessons focus on skill transfer, often through rote learning, with little space for children to explore ideas outside the realm of the text book. Gender inequities occur because parents of girls often do not favour sending their girls to schools because of poverty, accessibility and cultural barriers.  

To address these needs effectively, our program conducts thorough pre-assessment and rapid assessments in sample districts, collaborating closely with education departments and engaging local stakeholders. Through orientation sessions and advocacy meetings, we actively involve teachers, school administrators, parents, and community members in the development and implementation of our solution.

By understanding the specific challenges faced by these communities and actively involving them in the process, we tailor our solution to meet their unique needs. Through targeted interventions such as radio-based educational broadcasts, teacher training, and parental education initiatives, we aim to improve access to quality education, enhance learning outcomes, and empower these marginalized communities to break the cycle of poverty and achieve their full potential.

POWER99 Foundation's team is a diverse group with varied backgrounds, representing different faiths, regions, and experiences. We have Content and scriptwriters trained in writing for interactive audio instruction or materials development/instructional design staff in-house, experienced audio production staff and facilities for production, broadcasting, and interactive lesson creation, giving us a competitive edge

With years of professional experience in designing creative learning modules for education and life skills, especially for children, we understand the needs and challenges of our target audience intimately. Our team has hands-on experience with child-based learning projects in communities, allowing us to tailor our solutions effectively.

We prioritize interactive and collaborative approaches, empowering sustainable development and fostering meaningful partnerships with stakeholders. Our content is based on universal themes and success stories, ensuring its relevance and resonance with our audience.

Moreover, our team's diversity enables us to understand and represent the perspectives of the communities we serve. We actively seek input and ideas from our stakeholders, ensuring that our solutions are meaningfully guided by their needs and agendas. This collaborative approach enhances the effectiveness and impact of our programs, driving positive change in the communities we serve.

The selection of the Growth stage accurately reflects the trajectory of the program. It began with a successful pilot in 2012, reaching 3,700 children in FDE schools in Islamabad, showcasing its efficacy in improving literacy, numeracy, and English teaching. This pilot led to expansion to over 45 districts across Pakistan, demonstrating scalability and potential for further growth. Implemented in collaboration with government education departments, the program has already impacted over 500,000 direct beneficiaries and 15 million people through radio transmission outreach. With established effectiveness and institutional support, the program is poised for significant expansion to reach more communities in need

We are applying to Solve to leverage the extensive resources provided by its community. Our aim is to connect with impact-driven leaders across industries and sectors, accessing innovative projects, expert insights, and potential donors essential for holistic and sustainable development in Pakistan. By joining Solve, we seek to overcome financial, technical, and market barriers hindering our progress. While we understand Solve does not solely focus on fundraising, we believe that endorsement by a prestigious institution like MIT Solve signifies excellence and validates our impactful efforts.

A child-centred, holistic, and culturally relevant approach to education is at the core of a program in Pakistan, recognizing that effective learning should be active, interactive, and tailored to children and their families. Unlike traditional didactic methods prevalent in many areas of Pakistan, this program places the learner as the primary driver, with teachers and radio characters facilitating the learning journey. The curriculum employs a range of active learning strategies, including cooperative activities, listening and speaking exercises, riddles, sound games, and role-playing. These pedagogical techniques are designed to integrate social, linguistic, cognitive, and emotional contexts.

To ensure the content's social and cultural relevance, the program incorporates local and cultural traits into its curriculum. In addition to academic goals, the program aims to instill social, moral, and health-related values, fostering cultural socialization and overall development. These cultural traits are taught through rhymes and games to make them tangible and relevant to the learners.

The program's inclusive educational practices leverage the power of public broadcasting, making educational content accessible to remote and highly mobile populations consistently. The use of affordable technology has led to widespread adoption by schools facing challenges with attendance and teacher engagement in new teaching methodologies. Radio broadcasts serve as the primary medium of instruction for several reasons:

• Radio broadcasts are accessible to the entire population, reaching children and families not attending formal schooling and teachers. Unlike television and other broadcast forms that may be culturally or geographically inaccessible, radio is universally accepted and accessible.
• Family and community participation through radio broadcasts enhances awareness, supporting educational growth and sustainability. This approach reaches a broader audience of community members, improving their understanding of their children’s education and enabling them to better support and engage in dialogue about education. Parents listen to lessons while working, such as shining shoes, selling fruit, or driving taxis, and at home. This increased awareness not only encourages parents to send their children to school but also fosters their involvement in supporting the school. For example, when a school lacked water, the community arranged a water supply from a nearby Madrassah (religious school).

The program is designed to address the diverse needs of learners, with over 60% of its beneficiaries being female, including school heads, teachers, students, school council members, and community members.

The program's innovative features have the potential to catalyze significant change within the education sector. By providing equal quality education opportunities to marginalized communities and promoting gender equity, the program addresses immediate educational needs and contributes to broader positive impacts in areas of social justice and human development. Its scalable and inclusive model could inspire similar initiatives, ultimately transforming the education landscape and fostering sustainable change for future generations.

Our theory of change revolves around leveraging radio technology to provide accessible and inclusive education, ultimately leading to positive outcomes for marginalized communities, particularly in remote and low-income areas of Pakistan.

Immediate Outputs:

• Delivery of Quality Educational Content: Through Radio My Best Friend, educational content without compromising the quality is broadcasted via radio, reaching remote communities where traditional schooling may be inaccessible.
• Enhanced Teacher Engagement: Teachers are empowered to utilize Interactive Radio Instructions (IRI) lessons, enhancing their teaching practices and classroom engagement.
• Community Sensitization: Parents and community members are sensitized to the importance of education through radio broadcasts, leading to increased support and involvement in children's learning.

Intermediate Outcomes:

• Improved Educational Metrics: Third-party evaluations have shown positive impacts on girls' education, literacy rates, enrollment rates, and dropout rates, indicating improvements in educational outcomes.
• Economic Opportunities: Communities benefit from job and business opportunities related to the production of educational materials, contributing to economic growth and sustainability.
• Gender and Social Equity: By promoting gender equity and social inclusion, the program addresses disparities in education and empowers marginalized groups, particularly girls.

Long-term Impact:

• Transformed Education Landscape: The scalable and inclusive model of Radio My Best Friend inspires similar initiatives, leading to broader systemic changes in the education sector.
• Sustainable Development: By providing equal education opportunities and fostering community engagement, the program contributes to sustainable development goals, promoting social justice and human development.
• Global Influence: Recognition and endorsements from reputable institutions and media outlets elevate the program's profile, encouraging replication and adoption on a global scale, thereby amplifying its impact.

In summary, by leveraging radio technology to deliver quality education, Radio My Best Friend aims to catalyze positive changes in educational access, equity, and outcomes, ultimately leading to transformative impacts on individuals, communities, and societies.

Our impact goals for the Radio My Best Friend program are focused on improving educational outcomes and fostering positive changes in both students and teachers. We measure our progress through various indicators, including:

1. Improved Learning Outcomes: Third-party evaluations have shown statistically significant improvements in students' knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Students demonstrated better learning outcomes, increased motivation, and higher attentiveness, with radio-based activities boosting learner engagement by 78% compared to traditional methods.
2. Teacher Training Effectiveness: Rigorous teacher training programs focusing on Interactive Radio Instructions (IRI) methodology and subject content have been well-received. 92% of teachers reported using the techniques and teaching aids acquired during the training regularly in their classrooms. Teachers have adopted more interactive and child-focused methodologies, leading to better lesson planning and classroom engagement.
3. Enhanced Student Performance: Assessments indicate that students in Radio My Best Friend program schools have largely outperformed those in control schools. For both Kindergarten and Grade 1, students in program schools demonstrated marginally better or significantly better learning outcomes across various competencies.
4. Increased Enrollment and Attendance: Interviews and surveys with teachers, school administrations, and parents revealed increased enrollment rates and improved attendance and interest among students in program schools. Parents expressed satisfaction with the program's impact, with many transferring their children to program schools due to the perceived quality of education.
5. Community Empowerment: The program has raised awareness of the importance of education and basic health issues within communities. It has also built capacity among teachers for teaching in non-formal settings, contributing to improved learning outcomes among children.
6. Program Adoption and Satisfaction: Internal evaluations by the Power99 Foundation reported increased student participation, attendance, and enrollment in program schools. 92% of teachers utilized Radio My Best Friend teaching techniques, indicating high adoption rates and satisfaction with the program's effectiveness.

By continuously monitoring these indicators, we ensure that our program remains aligned with its impact goals, striving to create meaningful and lasting improvements in education access and outcomes for marginalized communities in Pakistan.

The areas of Pakistan that the Radio My Best Friend programme is designed to reach are both marginalized and remote; this in turn limits the extent to which ICT can be used. The World Bank indicates that less than 16 per cent of the Pakistani population used the internet in 2017 (Global Change Data Lab, 2020 Radio was thus selected as the delivery format for Radio My Best Friend For regions where electricity supplies are unreliable, ‘special wooden radios with dry rechargeable batteries, built-in sound system, and USB/memory card options are provided’. Lessons are also provided on USB for those who can utilize them.

Program materials are   designed to support people who have had no formal teacher training at all. This did not seem necessary to do at any large scale before the worldwide school closures, but the emergency caused by COVID-19 suddenly placed a great instructional burden on young learners’ family members — their parents, older siblings and guardians — the only people who have physical access to the learners.  This program helped   family members to become temporary facilitators of learning, providing an emergency expansion of the teaching resource pool. In the short term, this introduces resiliency into educational systems so that they can retain the three basic components of their system: students, teachers, and learning materials. The Program   allows students to learn in any physical environment, so long as they have access to radio and guidance from an older helper. This may not be ideal, but in an emergency scenario it is a viable distance learning system for areas without home internet access (for online instruction) or an efficient postal delivery service (for paper-based correspondence courses)

The detail of staff is as under:

Full-time staff: 19

Part-time Consultants: 5

Volunteers: 7

Since 2012

At POWER99 Foundation, our approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team is rooted in our mission to foster a respectful and caring community that embraces diversity and empowers everyone to learn and excel. We prioritize creating an environment that aligns with MIT's shared values of excellence, community, equity, belonging, openness, integrity, and mutual respect.

To achieve this, we are committed to being an equal employment opportunity employer. We ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment without discrimination based on factors such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin.

Our leadership team embodies these values through their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We actively seek out and support individuals from underrepresented groups, ensuring that our team reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. Additionally, we set tangible goals related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and have a clear plan for achieving them, including targeted recruitment efforts, ongoing diversity training, and creating opportunities for advancement and leadership development for all team members.

By prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our leadership team, we strengthen our ability to effectively address the needs of our community and drive positive impact.

1.    Social Cause:

Utilizing radio technology to offer accessible and inclusive education, primarily targeting remote and low-income areas of Pakistan.

2.    Customers/Beneficiaries:

Marginalized communities including children, parents, and teachers residing in remote regions.

3.    Value Proposition:

Accessibility: Provision of educational content through Radio My Best Friend facilitates learning in areas with limited access to conventional schooling.

Quality Education: Implementation of Interactive Radio Instructions (IRI) improves teaching methodologies and enhances student engagement.

Community Empowerment: Sensitization of parents and community members encourages their active involvement in children's education

4.    Impact Measures:

Educational Metrics: Progress in literacy rates, enrollment rates, and reduction in dropout rates.

Economic Opportunities: Creation of job and business prospects linked to educational materials production.

Gender and Social Equity: Advancement towards gender equity and social inclusion within targeted communities.

5.    Revenue Streams:

Donations and Grants: Support from philanthropic organizations.

Corporate Sponsorships: Collaboration with corporate partners for sponsorship opportunities.

6.    Cost Structure:

Content Production: Expenses related to the creation of educational materials.

Operational Costs: Broadcasting and outreach expenses.

Staff Salaries: Funding for employee wages and training programs.

7.    Partnerships/Resources:

Educational Institutions: Collaborations for content development.

Local Radio Stations: Partnerships for broadcasting services.

NGOs: Engagement for community outreach and sensitization initiatives.

8.    Distribution Channels:

Radio Broadcasting: Utilization of local radio stations for broadcasting educational programs.

Community Outreach: Direct engagement through outreach programs.

9.    Key Activities:

Content Creation: Development of educational content and curriculum.

Broadcasting: Airtime allocation for educational programming.

Community Engagement: Efforts directed towards community outreach and awareness campaigns.

Key Customers and Beneficiaries:

Our primary beneficiaries include children, teachers, families, and communities in marginalized areas of Pakistan, facing barriers like poverty, limited resources, and lack of parental involvement. Prioritizing these communities, we aim to foster positive changes in educational access, equity, and outcomes, leading to transformative impacts on individuals and societies.

Products and Services:

Our program utilizes radio technology to deliver standardized, high-quality educational content to remote communities where traditional schooling is inaccessible. Interactive radio broadcasts cover topics like literacy, numeracy, health, and arts, engaging students, families and promoting active participation. Face-to-face teacher training complements the radio program, reinforcing learned techniques and skills. A parenting education component disseminates knowledge on child nutrition and reproductive health, fostering dialogue within communities.

How We Provide Value:

1. Delivering Quality Educational Content: Radio broadcasts ensure that educational content reaches remote communities, enabling children to access learning opportunities despite geographical and resource limitations.
2. Enhancing Teacher Engagement: Teacher training on IRI methodology and subject content empowers teachers to enhance their teaching practices and classroom engagement.
3. Fostering Community Sensitization: Radio broadcasts and community outreach raise awareness of the importance of education among parents and community members, leading to increased support and involvement in children's learning.

Communities want and need our services as we offer a viable solution to their educational challenges. By leveraging radio technology, we provide accessible and inclusive education that addresses their unique needs and circumstances. Our program not only improves learning outcomes but also fosters community empowerment, contributing to sustainable development and social justice

In pursuit of financial sustainability, Radio My Best Friend will implement a diversified revenue model, leveraging various streams. Despite minimal challenges to program sustainability, we continually enhance our services and infrastructure to meet demand. The Power99 Foundation, renowned internationally, serves as a steadfast pillar of support, facilitating program continuity.

To address infrastructure deficits, we've bolstered our organization with indigenous capacity, boasting well-equipped offices manned by adept personnel. These resources are instrumental in executing projects nationwide.

Regarding financial limitations, our strategy entails tapping into diverse funding sources. We aim to secure grants from governmental and non-governmental entities, forge alliances with corporate sponsors, and explore crowdfunding avenues. Emphasizing the affordability and efficacy of our educational solutions like IRI remains central to our advocacy efforts.