Cynthia passes her primary school exam thanks to radio lessons

With funding from Education Cannot Wait, UNICEF is building remote learning opportunities in Burkina Faso for children impacted by COVID-19.

By Education Cannot Wait

October 7^th, 2020

Special Contribution by UNICEF Burkina Faso (Original Story)

Cynthia Sawadogo, 13 years old, had her education interrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this, she received her Primary School Certificate.

In January 2020, Cynthia and her family fled their village of Boroum, a few kilometers from Pissila, to find refuge in sector n°6 of Kaya, Centre Nord region. Fortunately, Cynthia’s father was able to enroll her in a public school as soon as they arrived in Kaya.

That Wednesday morning, about fifteen students installed in a small shed listened with great attention to a life skills lesson broadcast via a radio transistor. Classroom lessons during the 2019–2020 school year were abruptly suspended at the beginning of April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure that students, like Cynthia, would continue their education, distance learning programs were broadcast on the radio.

Cynthia, like many of the children listening to the lessons on the radio, experienced two major crises: insecurity and COVID-19. Like her, Albert Sawadogo, 11 years old, in second grade at a school in Rofenega, another village near Pissila, left with his whole family to Kaya.

Cynthia passes her primary school exam thanks to radio lessons

Cynthia and Albert have met every Wednesday and Saturday since mid-April, along with about ten other children in the Education by Radio club in their neighborhood, Bolé.

“We have learned so far grammar, mental calculations and life skills”, says Albert. Thanks to the lessons broadcasted, he too finished his school year successfully and will be starting the third-grade next year.

As for Cynthia, she will start her next school year with the older children:

“I passed the Primary School Certificate with an average of 120 out of 160. This entitles me to a place in the sixth grade. This is a success thanks to the radio education program,” she says.

Initiated in April 2020, following the closure of all the classes due to COVID-19 and the insecurity context, displaced children between 10 and 17 years old, from more than 150 families in the Centre Nord region, benefited from the Radio Education Programme . “We have divided the children into several groups to reach as many as possible. We broadcast the programmes through partner radios, such as Radio Notre Dame de Kaya and we reached more than a million listeners. We also have ten listening clubs, with 40 children per club." says Eleutère Ouédraogo, regional supervisor of the Radio Education Programme.

Thanks to ECW, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education, Literacy and the Promotion of National Languages ( MENAPNL), has supported the continuity of learning of 65,000 children (33,800 girls and 31,200 boys).

Covid-19 situation in Burkina Faso

When the first case of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso was reported on 9 March 2020, the government responded swiftly to curb the virus’ spread. As part of this response, all education centers we’re also closed, and learning was disrupted. This paved the way for distance learning programs for children at home, delivered through radio. However, education is still out of reach for many refugees who do not have access to technology.

To minimize this digital divide, Education Cannot Wait and UNHCR bought radios for primary and secondary refugee students to ensure they could access lessons being broadcast over the airwaves.

2019 Update

In 2019, Education Cannot Wait help 1,5000 children (53 per cent girls) in Burkina Faso access education in temporary learning spaces (TLS) that provided safe environments conducive to learning.

Learn more about the impact of ECW funded programming in Burkina Faso in our 2019 Annual Report.

Photo: Education Cannot Wait 2019 Annual Report

Education Cannot Wait’s ‘Stories from the Field’ series features the voices of our implementing partners, children, youth and the communities we support. These stories have only been lightly edited to reflect the authentic voice of these frontlines partners on the ground. The views expressed in the Stories from the Field series do not necessarily reflect those of Education Cannot Wait, our Secretariat, donors or UN Member States.

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