Amid virus lockdown, radio lessons return in Latin America

FUNZA, Colombia (AP) — At a small farmhouse outside Colombia’s capital city, Marlene Beltran picks up a ruler and crayons. She turns on the radio, sits down at a creaky wooden table and helps her 5-year-old brother with a lesson on how to make paper cubes and decorate them with drawings that tell a story.

The Beltrans work on dairy farms and have no internet connection at home. So an hour-long radio lesson developed by the municipal government keeps the children busy — to a degree — while schools are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Broadcasting was once used widely in Latin America to teach basic math and literacy skills to those in rural areas. Now radio and TV lessons are making a comeback during the virus lockdown, especially with the region’s spotty internet connectivity.

“We don’t want children to lose their studying habits,” said Diana Lopez, a teacher in the Colombian town of Funza who helps produce a daily radio show for elementary school students. Her county on the edge of Bogota has 10,000 public school pupils, of which about a third have no computers or internet at home.

“The radio lessons give children a space to develop their reading and writing skills and also show them that their teachers are still with them,” Lopez said.

While children in the United States and Europe watch lessons through web platforms and video conferencing apps, low connectivity in slums and villages across Latin America has forced governments there to develop a broader set of solutions.

Education ministries have developed online learning platforms for use by students with internet access. But many countries also are investing in broadcasting to reach low-income communities.

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