Educational Broadcasting in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s (2)
Farhad Saba, Ph. D. (c) All rights reserved
ERTI’s Exceptional Team
ERTI unit managers, radio and television producers, graphic artists and set designers, educational technologists, educational evaluators, researchers and the many broadcast engineers and technicians who made ERTI possible were creative, energetic, enthusiastic and forward-looking young women and men. They embodied the skills and enthusiasm that were necessary to grow an organization that was designed to support and nurture human resources within ERTI and in other organizations in the country at a time of rapid economic development. They gained the admiration of thousands of television viewers throughout the country and were instrumental in teaching innovative instructional methods and practices to hundreds of other professionals through television programs, as well as non-broadcast training services. The growth of ERTI would not have been possible without their enthusiastic professional service to their country.
High-Level Support of NIRT Leadership for ERTI
The political, organizational, and financial support of NIRT leadership was indispensable for the growth and development of ERTI. Comparable organizations in other countries in the Asia-Pacific region did not always enjoyed the backing of their leaders. In international conferences that I attended at the time, my counterparts in other countries were envious of the highest level of support that ERTI was receiving. Professional literature was emphatic that for educational broadcasting to succeed in any developing country, the highest level of political and financial support was of utmost necessity. The support and care that Mr. Ghotbi and Dr. Mahmoudi provided to ERTI to succeed was rare among broadcast executives at the time in developing countries.
They Mr. Ghotbi and Dr. Mahmoudi braced the adoption of the systems method of management, and the systemic process of educational planning and development wholeheartedly, although these methods were very new in Iran and had not been tried at a nationwide scale before. These NIRT leaders did not hesitate to offer their fervent support to professionals who worked for ERTI to experiment with state-of-the-art concepts and methods in applying systems theory, methodology and technology. Throughout its expansion between 1973, and 1978, the organization enjoyed more than adequate budget, as well as political backing. These were necessary elements to bring up the capacity of an embryonic organization to meet the challenge of introducing innovations in the educational system of the country during an era of rapid economic development, social change and historical political events. I owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Ghotbi and Dr. Mahmoudi who trusted me with managing ERTI at the ripe age of twenty-six and gave me the privilege to work with the staff of ERTI at a crucial period during which the systems approach was introduced to the staff, a major training program was implemented to introduce state-of-the-art skills in educational technology to them, and a wide ranging planning process was put into effect to chart the future of the organization.
