Educating children through TV programs

Educating children through TV programs

By Nicolas Colombant

JAKARTA (JP): Singaporean parents are encouraged to haul their
children out of malls and onto the family couch, so they can
watch educational TV programs together on Saturday afternoons.

In the Philippines, the government has set up TV sets and
recorders in classrooms so that animated video lessons can be
transmitted to the most remote areas.

On the local front, private educational channel TPI is
developing "edutainment", programs which educate and entertain.

Odds are heavily stacked against them as they fight to end the
stigma that TV that educates people also puts them to sleep.
UNESCO estimates that children worldwide spend, at most, 25
percent of their television time watching programs with
educational content.

"How can television make a difference in a population's
educational level?" was the question experts tried to answer at a
regional seminar at the Sari Pan Pacific hotel last week.

Olivier Chambard, first counselor of the French Embassy in
Jakarta, had the answer: "New technology can help to improve the
performance of educational TV."

The embassy, which sponsored the event, invited French experts
to share their knowledge in the field and to outline new
perspectives in the digital and information highway era.

France has successfully established a state-run network of
institutions, television stations, satellite broadcasters and
Internet sites specialized in the difficult art of teaching
through images and new technology.

The experts say educational TV realizes its full potential
beyond live broadcasts, which means commercial ratings should not
be valued as performance evaluators.

"Content television should try to make a difference in
people's lives rather than focusing on attracting advertisers,"
said Franck David, programming director for La Cinquieme
television channel "for knowledge, discovery, and society".

La Cinquieme has programs to help the unemployed, programs
designed for the hearing and speech impaired, and compact 13-
minute "lessons" on a wide range of topics.

It is now experimenting with a database of services and
programs, whereby video and information can be accessed by the
Internet and downloaded onto VHS tape via satellite and computer
hook-up.

The National Center for Distance Learning is working in close
cooperation with the channel. This open university has set up
satellite connections with 700 higher learning institutions
throughout France so that interactive question-and-answer
sessions with the most eminent of professors -- spiritual
leaders, Noble prize winners and CEOs -- can take place.

Audiovisual matter is supplemented by teaching and reading
material.

"An image cannot stand alone as an educational tool," UNESCO
expert Genevieve Jacquinot said. "Someone who sits in front of a
television will not learn anything if there is not a complete
framework which surrounds the broadcast."

President of the ABN-CBN Foundation in the Philippines, Gina
Lopez, said France's example may not be appropriate for Asia.

"It is all nice and dandy the way the French government is
visionary and has enough money to support this extensive network
of educational television. But let's face the facts, this is not
the reality in Southeast Asia. Our challenge is to find private
cost-effective ways of educating through television."

Lopez, who is also president of the Southeast Asian Foundation
for Children's Television, said one of the programs her
foundation produces, the computer-animated School on Air, has
higher ratings than the Power Rangers in the Philippines.

Yoenarsih Nazar, programing director for the forthcoming
Indonesian educational channel on the soon-to-be launched
Cakrawarta satellite, said the seminar had given her many ideas.

"I learned that educational TV must not follow the established
format of TV. We shouldn't sacrifice the educational quality just
because we are in the TV business. We need shorter formats to fit
the concentration span of our viewers. We have to set up centers
where our programs can be watched with the help of teachers."

TPI program planning and development manager, Endah Hari
Utari, said her station was repositioning itself because the new
broadcasting bill delegated state-run TVRI an educational
mission.

"We try to make learning fun and attractive, this is a first,
important step to break the ice," Utari said.

TPI is getting a little French help.

The French Embassy's audiovisual attache in the region, Michel
Houdayer, has recruited model and actress Maudy Koesnadi to host
the French-learning program Pique-Nique

"The romantic French language could be taught to Indonesian
viewers by a truly beautiful woman," Houdayer said.