Grant no. 511-0597-G-00-8222 to Fe y Alegria

The project is also intended to increase Fe y Alegria"s institutional capacities. Fe y Alegria will develop, promote, and broadcast an interactive radio program series for Bolivian primary schools. The program will perform the following pedagogical functions: (1) present and explain primary school curriculum material and concepts, reinforcing the presentation of curriculum material by teachers; and (2) provide intensive written and oral practice in basic core curriculum skills. Specific outputs include, inter alia, adapting a full radio mathematics curriculum for Grades 1-3, adapting the entire Grade 1 Spanish language curriculum developed under Project 9365818 in Honduras, and transmitting 450 half-hour radio lessons in mathematics and 150 half-hour radio lessons in Spanish language studies. A core group of 15 specialists will be trained in interactive radio curriculum adaptation, script-writing, materials development, teacher training, lesson production, and project administration. Participation in the program - which is expected to reach 10% of Bolivean children in grades 1-3 - will be voluntary; Fe y Alegria will make radios and educational materials available to participating schools and communities at an affordable price. Through its implementation of the program, Fe y Alegria will strengthen its capabilities in several areas. First, it will develop a capacity to adapt, produce, and transmit educational radio programs at the primary school level. It will experiment with different transmission modes including donated transmission time on existing private radio stations and/or networks and assembling an ad hoc network of local stations around the country that would be contracted to re-transmit programs at low cost. Further, Fe y Alegria will develop an Agreement of Cooperation with other private organizations administering schools and with the Ministry of Education to work jointly on promoting effective use of the interactive radio broadcasts by primary school teachers.