With one hundred plus channels of cable television - Belizeans love their TV but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In the face of the dismal performance every year on the Primary School Examination - principals have an idea of how they can use that same television to deliver instruction that will improved grades on the PSE. We first told you about it in October of last year when big U.S. television producers Marjorie Clarke and Randolph Stirrup came to Belize to lend assistance. Well there's been a lot of work between then and now. Today the 7NEWS team was on location for the shooting of a pilot episode.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This is the television which primary school principals say your children should be watching. You can call it education-TV and over the last week director Marjorie Clarke has been overseeing the filming of three pilot televisions starring children and aimed at Belizean children.
Marjorie Clarke, Director
"It is one pilot that shows the three different shows that we are going to do. The math game show which was done Wednesday was three teams of two and the concept of that show is to teach math skills and also have fun. The second show is a called, 'People faces and places' where the students, five different students from the five cultural backgrounds in the country are traveling around the country in different school districts and looking at the antiquities that make up the history of Belize. But the concept of that show is for students to go around the country and learn about their own history. So it is a social science show and it is also a reading and writing comprehension show."
Math and social studies - doesn't sound like fun but Clarke says you'd be surprised. She says the pilot episode is just the start of a movement that could re-invent the way your child learns.
Marjorie Clarke,
"It is one thing to have a brilliant idea, it is another thing to write it down. But unless you can see it and touch it and feel its benefits, its hard to find out how to fund it or why you should fund it. But this pilot show is not only the determination from the principals to help increase the children's knowledge but to show the community and to show the government and to show your countrymen that this is an initiative they should support both financially and emotionally."
And no one believes that more than Randolph Stirrup who has produced shows for Nickelodeon and HBO and is a part of this project.
Randolph Stirrup, Producer
"There is a strong educational component attached to the shows. I think that the overall goal of the show is to help the kids improve their scores on
the PSE. I think it is engaging, I think kids love seeing themselves. I think that based on the type of shows that we have attached to the curriculum, I think it will be engaging and kids will want to learn and hopefully the end result will be our goal and the scores will increase."
And while Stirrup says they will - Delarai Sanchez says they must. She is the head of the Belize District Association of Primary School Principals which has been the driving force behind the project.
Delarai Sanchez, Primary School Principals Assoc.
"They will see their classmates actually showing them what to do and they can look at it over and over and get the concept. Everything is linked to life skills; the math, the language, and the life skills. So that is going to be interesting because children learn best while they are playing and they will see these children playing using the play way method so learning is going to be fun and I think it is going to be a voluntary thing for them."
Of course that's left to be seen and we'll keep watching.
The shows are geared towards primary school students in standards five and six. The pilot episodes should air in April. If they can access funding, the producers hope to film an additional 8 episodes. All episodes will be aired on Channel 7.
