COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response: Radio Paathshala for students in Nepal’s Bagmati province

The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented levels of disruption to education, impacting over 90% of the world’s student population: 1.54 billion children, including 743 million girls.

In Nepal, all educational institutions have also been closed for a long time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure access to education for secondary level students through distance learning, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Education Development Directorate, Bagmati province, and Prime FM radio, started a radio education programme in mid-May called ‘Radio Paathshala’.

The radio program covers thirteen districts of the Bagmati province. Teachers have been providing live broadcast services to support students when they face problems in learning their lessons.

In view of the growing number of social media users, the lessons are also being recorded and shared on Prime FM’s Facebook page, where they are easily accessible to students.

“UNESCO is always committed to ensuring quality education for all, and this is one of our efforts to come up with the best options for the continuation of learning for students in this crisis period with the whole country in a lockdown situation,” said Balaram Timalsina, Chief of the Education Unit in Kathmandu’s UNESCO Office.

UNESCO is supporting countries in their efforts to mitigate the immediate impact of school closures, particularly for more vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, and to facilitate the continuity of education for all through remote learning.