**2. Initial implementation of the programme**

This section provides an overview of the implementation of the South African Radio Learning programme as outlined in its funding contract with USAID. The programme's brief was to offer direct support to the South African Department of Education in improving the quality of teaching in primary schools. This would be achieved by targeting the development of English language competencies in the junior primary phase, through the medium of interactive radio.

After an initial pilot (Leigh, 1992), 118 radio lessons were scripted in 1993 to support the teaching of English at Grade One level. These were implemented with 14 500 learners in five regions of South Africa in 1993 (Potter & Leigh, 1995; Leigh, 1995). This was followed in 1994 by the development of 130 radio lessons at Grade Two level. The lessons were of half an hour duration, and were recorded on audio-tapes.

As radio broadcasting in South Africa at the time was controlled by the national broadcaster (the SABC), initial implementation of the programme took place through the medium of audio-cassettes. These were packaged in cardboard boxes and delivered to the participating schools in each region by a regional coordinator, together with a radio tape-recorder and other classroom materials. These included a teacher's manual and printed classroom posters and alphabet friezes to support the radio lessons. As the tapes and materials were developed in stages over the year, the regional coordinator was able to establish ongoing personal contact with the teachers and principals of the participating schools.

The regional coordinator was also able during her visits to the schools, to act as adviser on matters relating to programme implementation. Her roles included observing lessons, suggesting ways of supporting the programme at classroom level, as well as ways of linking the programme and other facets of the curriculum. Participating teachers were encouraged in the process to make contact with each other, and to form teacher support groups. Workshops on use of the programme and on primary school teaching were also organized regionally, and then implemented through the school visiting and teacher support group structures.

By the end of 1994 when the initial funding grant provided to the programme by USAID came to an end, a network of teacher and school support had been set up across five provinces of South Africa, centred around materials distribution, teacher support groups and in-service training workshops to support the teaching of English at lower primary school level had been established. At the Grade One level, 118 radio lessons and supporting classroom materials, and at the Grade Two level 130 radio lessons and supporting classroom and print materials had been developed.

Plans were in place for the scripting of 180 radio lessons and the development of supporting learner materials to support Grade Three level implementation. Structures for curriculum development and for consultation with national and provincial Education Departments around curricular issues had also been established.

Underpinning these programmatic structures was a programme implementation theory (Weiss, 1998; Potter, 2005) reflecting a vision of educational change (Potter, 1992). This chapter focuses on a shift in this vision from a product to a process conception of curriculum (Hamilton, 1976, Stenhouse, 1975, 1980; 1981; Walker, 1969; 1971). As this shift took place in response to evaluation and is also reflected in the evaluation reports on the development of the programme over this period, the next section of this chapter focuses on the role of formative evaluation over the initial implementation phase.
