I am sure that one seeing the title of our presentation of number of you must have thought: "how can radio which is a non-visual medium promote literacy?" We have recently put our minds to this very question and I would like to apprise you of our findings in due course. Fundamental to any comprehensive radio-based literacy programme are support materials. In collusion with these support materials, radio can play a structured role in literacy programmes, which I would like to go into later on. First of all, I intend to look at how we have used radio to motivate people for literacy.

Late in 1993, we launched the BBC Afghan Education Drama Project. As the name suggests, through the medium of drama we sought to inform and educate people in the war-torn country of Afghanistan on themes which were essential for the rebuilding of their country. Actually, we see our programmes not as education per se, but more as enter-ducation, that is education by means of entertainment. Just as education is a big priority as Afghanistan grapples with the crippling effects of two decades of civil war, so entertainment is also essential to ameliorate the grind and struggle of everyday life in the country.

We sought to combine the two - entertainment and education - in the storylines of our flagship operation, radio soap opera broadcast in Pashto and Persian, an called "New Home, New Life". Our aim has been to develop storylines which are convincing and gripping as well as informative and educational. Some of the themes that we deal with have been child vaccination, mine awareness, conflict resolution, struggle for economic livelihood, relations with aid agencies. One of the themes we have dealt with in a series of storylines has been adult literacy.

Motivation for literacy:

We have not sought to actually impart adult literacy in our soap opera. This is the function of our support materials, which I will go into later. In the soap opera, we seek to motivate people and persuade them that literacy should be a priority. This has been difficult in Afghanistan, where the number one priority for people is to eke out a livelihood for themselves and their families. Under such circumstances, our number one priority was to convince people that literacy would be a help in this regard.

Our experience has been that one of the main challenges for any effective literacy programme is convincing people that literacy will be of practical and economic benefit.

One of our main aims in being here is to gain new ideas, from adult literacy programmes in the region, as to how we can motivate people more effectively to take part in literacy programmes. Here are some of the ideas we have already come up with, and how we have moulded these ideas into storylines of "New Home, New Life".

Our storylines relating to literacy have followed a similar pattern. First, something happens which highlights the disadvantages which an illiterate person faces in life. This moves him or her to take some steps to remove this disadvantage. The benefits of literacy are then positively compared to the disadvantages that confront a person who cannot read or write. Here are some examples of storylines which have followed this pattern:

* An early example was the case of Taj Bibi. She lost a child in infancy, due in large part to her failure to be vaccinated during pregnancy against tetanus, and to observe basic hygiene procedures at the birth of the child. She was so moved by the loss that she was one of the most enthusiastic participants in a midwivery course which was later held in her village. During this course, she realised that she would become more knowledgeable if able to read health messages and manuals related to child care and safe birthing practices. This motivated her to later on take part in women's literacy courses.

* The sight of women in literacy courses was too much for men to stomach. It seemed to them as if women would steal a march on men, if they were allowed to pursue their literacy course while men remained idle. This motivated them to start their own literacy course. Two of those in the foremost of this initiative were a couple of characters - Karim and Shakoor. Karim felt the need to become literate since this would help him in his work as a basic veterinary worker. Shakoor was a local administrator, many of whom in the wake of the mujahiden takeover in Afghanistan were not literate. However, in his work, he felt the need to read and write. This need was highlighted when a villager brought a letter to Shakoor for him to read out. Shakoor's position as an administrator was compromised, and he felt slighted, when he was not able to read out the letter.

* When one character in the soap opera - Jabbar Khan - decides to get his son married, he needs to borrow some money. He sends his servant Nazir to borrow Afs. 300,000 off someone. Later one, Nazir returns with the money and a receipt. The amount is Afs. 300,000, but when someone has a look at the receipt, it turns out that the receipt is for Afs. 3 million. Immediately, suspicion falls on Nazir that he has stolen some of the money. Then the focus of suspicion turns on the person who has lent the money, that he had tried to trick them. All these quarrels, it was pointed out, were due to the fact that Nazir had not been able to read. If he had, he would have noticed that an incorrect amount had been written down.

* This episode convinces Jabbar Khan that Nazir should attend the literacy course. When this is being mentioned in conversation, Shakoor suggests that it would not be a bad idea for Jabbar Khan to go himself. Jabbar Khan, being a local landlord and something of a magnate, considers this humiliating for himself, but he delegates Nazir to pass on to him the things he has learnt in the literacy course. Since Nazir has himself no intention of attending the literacy course, the whole affair descends into farce, with Nazir pretending in bizarre and ridiculous manner that he has learnt this and that, when in fact he has not even been in the class.

Just one point here. If Nazir refuses to go to the class, how does this provide any incentive to others to take part in literacy courses? This brings in the subject of characterisation, which is all-important in soap opera. Nazir is a negative character in our soap opera. It is more effective having negative characters playing negative roles. Listeners learn to emulate what positive characters do, and avoid doing the same as negative characters. This gives one immense scope for drama and comedy, as well as education.

* When the local village barber gives the tailor Jandad some cloth to sew for his son, he gets his wife Fatima to take the measurements. She makes a mistake the measurements, with the result that the clothes are sown in the wrong size. This leads to a quarrel between the barber and Jandad. After this, a friend of Fatima - Shahperay - shows Fatima how to write down the sizes properly. Fatima is impressed and becomes more determined to become literate.

These storylines are regularly discussed in meetings with experts. These meetings have been the source of many novel ideas on how to persuade people as to the importance of literacy. In these meetings, we have particularly focused on factors which can facilitate literacy amongst women. Some suggestions, which have been incorporated in storylines of "New Home, New Life", have been:

- usually women are entrusted with money in households in Afghanistan. This can lead to problems when the woman is illiterate and innumerate, and not able to count. This normal transaction can lead to a misunderstanding between husband and wife, underscoring the need for both to have basic numeracy skills.

- literacy will enable women to better manage their households. For instance, a literate woman will be able to read new recipes in cookery books, and thus make welcome additions to her cuisine. She will be able to find out new patterns for knitting, haberdashery and sewing work.

- if a mother is literate, she is in a position to help her children with their homework. This will in turn also boost her own literacy level. If a mother is literate, the words "The first school is a mother's lap" are even more applicable. Not only will a literate mother help with school work, she is also better able to enlighten herself on matters pertaining to religion, and pass them on to her children.

- a literate woman has access to new and lucrative income-generation ideas, which do not necessarily involve her going out to work. A literate woman is able to estimate the cost of the time and materials she has put into a product, and thus put an appropriate price on her handicrafts or whatever.

- a literate woman is much better able to understand the Quran and impart religious teaching to her children. The potency of Islam as a weapon for literacy should not be underestimated, particularly in such a religious society as that of Afghanistan. Imagine what a force and inspiration for literacy it is to have a Prophet who was completely unlettered and unread. Then, the first words to be revealed to him were "Iqra" - "Read" - after which he spent the rest of his life encouraging his followers to become literate.

These motivating factors may seem somewhat basic, but one must remember that we have been addressing a mostly traditional society in Afghanistan. Often, societies in which literacy is predominant tend to be conservative. It is important to put oneself onto their level when putting points before them which will encourage them to become literate. The carrot one offers them must be palatable to them. For example, in a traditional society such as Afghanistan, if one were to suggest that a literate woman would be able to work outside the home, and offer this as an incentive for literacy, it would definitely have an adverse effect. In the same way, in most traditional societies. the fact that literate and educated women are more likely to take part in family planning programmes and have smaller families, is going to persuade people that female literacy is a good idea. To point out their enhanced participation and co-operation in health education programmes, on the other hand, is not going to trigger any negative reaction.

The ability to write and read letters is a good example of how a similar argument can produce both negative and positive results, depending on the way the argument is framed. This is clear from a couple of contrasting stories which have come in "New Home, New Life".

A letter comes to a family from abroad. No one is able to read the letter in the family, so they get someone outside the family to read the letter. It turns out that the letter contains sensitive information. The exposure of this information outside the family causes both shame and danger to the family concerned. Such an argument is quite convincing and likely to produce positive results.

However, the possibility that literacy will lead to secret liaisons and letter-writing to members of the opposite sex is one that deters people in traditional societies from participating in literacy programmes. It is better to downplay such factors, which are far outweighed by the outcomes of literacy which are universally viewed as positive.

We had an experience early on in the life of our soap opera for Afghanistan which brought home how some well-meaning arguments can have adverse effects. We incorporated an innocuous love-story into the scripts of "New Home, New Life". The girl involved was educated. We phased the love story out of the scripts when we received a reaction from one woman listener that she had learned from "New Home, New Life" not to allow her daughter out of doors, for education or any other purpose, since she might develop some illicit relationship, and then no one would marry her. I think rightly, we felt that such an adverse reaction was too high a price to pay for an innocuous romance which was not central to the plot of the soap opera.

Support materials:

Before starting to talk about our support materials, I should mention at this stage that this was meant to be a joint presentation. Unfortunately, my colleague Shirazuddin Siddiqui, now head of the BBC Afghan Education Projects, who has been largely responsible for the development of this side of our operation, was unable to come because of project preoccupations.

The examples given above show how we persuade people in our radio programmes that literacy is worthwhile, and will improve their lives. Up till now, we have not only sought to motivate people for literacy in our actual radio programmes. We have not begun the perhaps more ambitious task of actually imparting literacy through radio programmes. Recently, we have put some thought to this. A new component of the renamed BBC Afghan Education Projects is the Radio Education for Afghan Children Project - known as REACH. In the workshops leading to the launch of REACH, the importance of support materials was discussed. Clearly, there are immense logistical difficulties involved in circulating literature among the millions of our listeners, especially in a country like Afghanistan where war, lack of security, communication difficulties, the lack of any infrastructure such as a postal system and the remoteness of communities all work against one.

One of the more interesting suggestions put forward was that one should make use of books that are present in every household. In Afghanistan, this applies to the Holy Quran and - even more interestingly from a point of view of actually imparting literacy - it also applies to the Qa'ida-e-Baghdadi, that is the basic reader from which every child learns how to read the Arabic alphabet and the Holy Quran.

When there is a basic reader such as Qa'ida-e-Baghdadi, to which almost every listener has access, it is possible to refer to that reader in radio programmes and mount a reasonably effective literacy programme on the airwaves. We will of course also be providing our own support materials along with REACH.

Printed support materials have been a major component of our programme up till now. Funded by UNESCO, another component of the Afghan Education Projects - the Afghan Publishing House - has been publishing a cartoon magazine which follows scene by scene the plots and storylines of the "New Home, New Life" soap opera. While this was not sufficient in itself to impart literacy, it has certainly provided very useful supplementary reading material for neo-literates.

The fact that the cartoon magazine follows a popular radio programme, and the characters and storylines are well-known among readers, gives readers an extra incentive to be able to read and follow the simple captions. We have taken various measures to make the cartoon magazine even more effective as supplementary reading material for quasi- and neo-literates. For instance, scenes relating to different storylines following one another, as happens in the radio soap opera, all the scenes from a single storyline are collected together, thus presenting a set of separate stories all relating to "New Home, New Life".

A development even more fundamental to the emergence of our programmes as a force for promotion of literacy, was the introduction of a section entitled "Where there is no School". This section comprises a set of puzzles and exercises related to the scripts and storylines of "New Home, New Life". It gives readers a chance to practice and develop their reading and writing skills in conjunction with stories, characters and scenarios with which they are familiar.

Capitalizing on the popularity of "New Home, New Life", and exploiting the educational potential of the stories to the full, we have recently begun converting the stories of the soap opera into books for children. While these reading materials are intended more as supplementary reading materials for neo-literates, they have also provided incentive and assistance for those seeking to become literate.

To sum up, our experience in Afghanistan shows that radio has a good deal to offer in promoting literacy.