Television As An Instrument For Educational Advancement.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:

The word Education could be defined in various ways. In very broad sense, it could be defined to include every agency which enables an individual to master his physical and social environment of which he is a member. It could well be defined as an act of techninology bringing up, instructing or enlightening.

    But for the purpose of this study, Education will be defined as an organized and formal instruction which is given in educational establishment  s such as schools, colleges, and universities. 

    Education in Nigeria today, has assumed an important position as the country’s development programmes. That is why the present government introduced the Universal Basic Education. programme  free and composery education for pupils from primary one to Junior Secondary three. This is to show that education has an important role and play in the economy of the nation and government is investing heavily in it.

    The most important economic function of education is ensuring that the labour force need of the country is satisfied. Nigeria with its growing economy, needs not just a greet deal of manpower, and quantity and quality of this manpower are to a large extent, controlled by the educational system.

    Education also has a political role to play in the Nigeria society. The stability of any autonomous political unit depends upon two criteria – consensus of opinion about the assumptions underlying the system and the leaders from within itself. In both cases education has an important role to play.

    Furthermore formal education in Nigeria is no longer confirmed to educational institutions only. The macho have in recent time now, taken a bold and positive step towards enhancing educational development as the country through its educational programme. An example us the Enugu State Broadcasting Service (ESBS) Un-Air programme.

    Mass media communication comprises the institutions and Techniques by which specialized groups employ technological devices – that is the press, television, radio, films to disseminate information to large corporation and television – WNBC/TV – Ibandan in 1964. Later in the same year educational broadcasting stressed to Kaduna, the then sect of the Northern states. Although, television remains conformed primary to urban areas and to relatively elite populations, the number of television receivers has expanded rapidly in many third would countries.

    According to Uphamedu (1992:2) introductory film slide or film strips presentation, television programmes do help teachers in stimulating the students interest, open up possibilities for further investigation, present meaningful information and create room for new activity.

    In 1965, the Eastern Nigeria Broadcasting Service/Television- ENPC/TV started what looked like educational broadcasting with the help of the Eastern Nigeria Ministry of Education, but the programming then was mainly informed. A typical ENBC/TV programme in this category was the “Tortoise Club” a programme for very young children.

    This type of programming contined until the out-break of the civil war in 1966. Later in 1973, NTV Lagos revived its educational programme by introducing some foreign films  on science it was meant for children between the ages of ten to fifteen. It was at this point that the idea of schools broadcasting in science come up and was introduced in many of the Nigerian television stations in the country.

    The ABS channel 27 Onitsha, when one of the television stations that introduced schools broadcast in science subjects in its programme schedule. However, in 1983, the station started a formal education programme which they called “science for schools”. This programme was than jointly produced by the station and the Ministry of education Headquarters, Enugu, later the co-operation shifted from the ministry to the Modern Aids to Education centre under the principal education officer.

    The format for the production of the programme was mainly provided by the centre. But in the early part of 1992 (after the creation of Enugu State) the educational unit of ABS Onitsha because autormons with a graduate in science heading it. And from then the format for the production of the programme become the responsibility of the unit.

    The programme is made up of lectures in Chemistry and Biology. It is broadcast weekly on Mondays at 5.30pm and last for thirty minutes. The production is serial, one subject matter leading to the development of another. The scheme is drawn a long side the school certificate syllabus in Chemistry/ Biology. It has as its target audience, students in classes four, five and six in secondary schools who are offering Chemistry and Biology in the school certificate examinations and other O’ level external related certificate examination.

    In addition to the already mentioned point relating to the programme, audio-visual and has a high rate of starting information in the students, students will not easily forget anything they saw on a television things that a  sciences teacher, cannot teach his students he supplements for it through video film that is related to such a theory. It also makes teachers work not to be much loaded by sharing the students places or film or processes of production which could have taken a reasonable time for the teacher to explain, it in addition stores information for a period of time and can be used b sets of students.

 1.2  OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of these study is to evaluate television as an instrument for educational advancement in Nigeria the specific aims of the study include:- to evaluate how the programme “science for schools enrich the teaching / learning of science subjects in our secondary schools; to fund out how well the programme has forced among the listeners and its overall impact in our educational pursuit, thereby determining its total contribution to Nigeria educational system.

 1.3  SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

    According to the programme producer, the programme is designed to:-

1) Enrich the teaching of science secondary schools. The students through this formal educational programme, are encouraged to develop greater interest in science subjects for higher technological advancement.

2)    Compliment and supplement classroom education.

3)    Broaden and deepen knowledge in science.

4)    Encourage intellection development

5)    Provide tutorial on curriculum subjects.

 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

          In order to achieve the desired goal of  the research, the following research questions have been formulated.

1)    How many students have access to television sets.

2)    How many of the students are aware of the programme; watch the programme and learn anything from the programme these questions are under popularity score of science for schools”.

3)    Is the adequacy of duration of the programme adequate.

4)    What is the rate of understanding of the programme

5)    What is the degree of feedback on the programme.                                         

1.5  RESEARCH PROBLEMS

          The research tends to solve these problem, since it concentrate on “science for schools”, it is designed to determine whether the programme has achieved the aims and objectives for which it was established. It is aimed at finding out whether the television is playing an effect role in formal education.

          In studying “science for schedule the researcher intends to find out scientifically whether the students who are the programmes target audience are conversant with it.

1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

          In effect, the study will find out if conducting classroom education through the television is profitable or waste. To this effect the following hypothesis  have been formulated:-

1)    The target audience would feel that day students would be more exposed  to the programme than boarders as there are no television sets in the dormitory.

2)    They would fell that majority of the students would not be aware of the programme and so would regard  it as not being popular.   

3)    They would feel that the thirty minutes allotted to it is adequate.

4)    The students should tend to view the programme as being effective because they would not have the opportunity of asking questions.

5)    They should regard the programme as a waste of funds and a duplication of efforts, science students have access to the same lessons at school.  

 1.7 LIMITATIONS  OF THE STUDY

          Limitation as pertaining to the study is minimal; apart from the money limitation; the researcher where unable to meet the production crew, apart from the producer who spared a little time.

          Again, there was the problem of time; the time given for the work was not enough to conduct it, considering the numerous ground to be covered.

          The teacher tends to leave the memory of the programme to students done, greater percentage of the teachers do not know anything about the programme.

 1.8  DEFINITIONS OF TERMS:

A TELEVISION: Television as used in this study, means an instrument used

in the dissemination of information, making use of audio-visual aids and intended to reach large, heterogeneous widely dispersed audiences.

B. BROAD CASTING: This is an Oct of disseminating information to

                             widely dispersed audience. 

C. POPULATION: As used in this work, popularity means to be known,

                             pleasing and useful to the target audience.