RELATION OF RADIO TO EDUCATION OF ADULTS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6804, 7 January 1929, Page 9

RELATION OF RADIO TO EDUCATION OF ADULTS

BRITAIN STUDIES PROBLEM. EXETER, Eng. In most important centres in Great Britain attempts are now being made to create those regional councils which were recommended by the recent commission on the radio and adult education. The methods employed to achieve this end liavo generally been to call together a public meeting to be addressed by radio officials, prominent men in church and state, or to bring together a committee consisting of delegates from public bodies. The difficulties of this task have been well illustrated in the meetings held in Plymouth in connection with the establishment of a radio council for the southwest of England. They were of two kinds: Those Tegard to the uses of wireless generally and in the locality in particular, and those with regard to the nature and effectI iveness of the organisation proposed. In the first class the criticism was made; that the wireless was too mechanical, that It lacked the human touch, therefore presenting dangers to true education; that centralisation of radiocasting in Great Britain meant that less and less space could be given to local programmes; that opinion was divided as to the value of the lectures at present being given, and that not enough time was given to the teaching of foreign languages by radio. It has been decided to constitute a district council for adult education tnrough the radio and in a conservative English way to seek guidance from the future. It may be said that a real radio policy both for the stations and the listener cannot be effective till the 8.8. C. arc able to introduce the promised educational service on an alternative wavelength .At present education has to take its place in the programmes alongside pure entertainment.