Many people lack sufficient access to electricity, and batteries are expensive to obtain. However alternatives in solar and windup technology have been developed and are gradually making their way to the village level. In order to empower disadvantaged groups as equal partners in development, the limitations of formal and non-formal education are now being challenged. New ways to achieve mass education, that can be both efficient and effective, are being sought. In this context, radio, an effective telecommunications medium, was proposed at Jomtien in 1990, as the solution most likely to address this great need.
Radio can cut across geographic and cultural boundaries.
Given its availability, accessibility, cost-effectiveness and power, radio represents a practical and creative medium for facilitating mass education in a rural setting. However ten years since Jomtien, radio still continues to be an under-utilized technology in education. This is especially surprising, because from a learner's point of view, radio is user friendly, accessible and a well-established medium. From an educational provider's point of view it is easy to set up, produce and broadcast programs. After almost one hundred years of broadcasting history, most nations possess more than a respectable level of engineering skills and broadcasting talent needed to apply the technology in education.