IRI in South Africa

The South African IRI was implemented in 1992 by the Open Learning Systems Educational Trust (OLSET), an NGO, based in Johannesburg. Initially the USAID provided the funds and LearnTech provided the technical support. Currently funding for the running of the programme comes from foreign donors, the main source being Norwegian aids. The audience of the South African IRI programme comprises of Black children in Grade 1, 2, and 3 of primary schools. The programme provides daily, half-hour English lessons, either through radio broadcasts, or through recorded cassettes, to grade 1, 2, and 3 classrooms of Black primary schools. The teachers also receive support and training on IRI methodology through a network of co-ordinators. The original design was based on the early IRI model pioneered by the academics at Stanford University. Soon the curriculum and the instructional design changed according to the needs of democratic South Africa (Naidoo, 1998; Potter and Leigh, 1995). The programme tries to get more teacher involvement and more peer interaction among the learners.

(Edirisingha,1999, p. 4)

Sub-Saharan Africa: Study Centre
Many post-colonial African countries could not expand the conventional schools within their shrinking budgets, even within a generation or more (Perraton, 1982). They chose distance education as an alternative model, which was becoming popular in rich countries at that time. Study Centre model was the particular organisational structure that was established to provide education at a distance in three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Malawi, Zambia. Most students of these programmes are primary-school leavers working at junior secondary level. All the three countries use an approach which recognises that these students need considerable support and have combined the use of print correspondence materials with support from tutor. ‘The basic learning package is the same in the three countries. On enrolment students receive printed correspondence courses and access to a marking service. They then register in a local study centre (called an open secondary class in Zambia) where they meet every day. They are supervised by individuals who are either primary school teachers or reasonably well educated adults, and they may get the opportunity to listen to radio programmes or taped instruction (Curran and Murphy, 1992, p.19). The courses provided are equivalent to those of the regular school, and at the successful completion of the course the learners gain certificates that are comparable to those gained from formal schools. Learners study at the study centres, under the supervision of facilitators, using the print materials specially prepared for them. Radio and other audio-visual media are also used to some extent.

(Edirisingha,1999, p. 5)

Dominican Republic: Interactive Radio Instruction

This programme has been developed by the USAID, following early work in Nicaragua in 1974 and in Kenya in 1980. The aim was to provide a low cost alternative to traditional schooling (Helwig et al, 1999). The programme, named Radio Assisted Community Basic Education (RADECO) was implemented in the south-western region of the Dominican Republic in 1981, where at that time, in isolated mountains, one-fifth of the children of primary school age were deprived of education by poverty and distance (AID, n.d.). RADECO, started in 1981, is the longest living IRI project, which still broadcasts to rural communities in the southwestern region of the Dominican Republic. The students received non-formal short lessons in mathematics and Spanish that raised their test scores to approximately the same level as students in formal schools. The total population reached so far is now close to 140,000 (Helwig et al, 1999).

The RADECO students work all day in coffee or cane fields. In the afternoons they gather in a shelter that functions as the radio school where they listen to RADECO broadcasts. The broadcasts cover the core curriculum of the formal schools: literacy, numeracy, social studies, and natural science. They learn an hour each day, and they are learning it as well as their counterparts in traditional schools, who spend three or four times as many hours in their classrooms (A.I.D., n.d). The students are not required to wear a uniform, and in fact most parents cannot afford it. As one mother puts it: ‘what is important is that the children are taught. They are educated, without regard to material things.’ The shelters (enramada) are mostly thatched roofs on four support posts built from inexpensive local material.

(Edirisingha,1999, p. 8-9)

Literature

The borderline between alternative routes to formal education and nonformal education are not always clear cut. The NOS model (National Open Schools) are a point in case (cf. Dewal). They also could be classified here since they often offer 'alternative routes to formal education' to school drop outs. This is why Edirisingha (1999) remains a good starting point. Additionally, you should read some of the short introductory articles in TechKowlogia.
A central resource for this topic is still Perraton (1982).