In a remote part of Malawi children in a school are seated under a tree. The teachers are facing with lack of teaching resources; hence they are being innovative and using locally available materials to bridge the gap. For instance, a teacher utilizes a used carton, and creates a look-alike TV set with it. Colorful illustration on the front side of the box is shown as if it is on a TV screen. Children here have never been even close to a real TV set. This kind of innovative method of teaching is known as Talular (Teaching and Learning Using locally Available Resources.) Other materials can be bottle tops, cardboards, matchboxes, roots, leafs and whatever you can think of. This program is to motivate teachers to be more interesting in their instructional methods. Through interviews of four model teachers, we learn of their frustrations at having no teaching and learning resources. The program also uses vivid facial expressions of the children being benefited by the innovative teachers.

My proposal, Our TV is a carton! was inspired by words of a child I met in a school in Malawi when I was filming another educational film. When the child saw himself on my camera’s viewfinder, he commented, “We also have a TV,” then went ahead to retrieve a carton. At this time I had noticed the hardships that learners and teachers faced due to lack of learning and teaching resources.
I also met the teacher who had improvised the carton as a "TV." This teacher really inspired me because he had not given up but was utilizing all types of resources.
The resilience and determination of the teachers and the reactions of their learners are the centerpiece of my documentary. As Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and essayist, once said, one should not go where the path may lead, but instead go where there is no path and leave a trail – this is what these teachers are doing.
I want to show how the efforts of the brave teachers are translating into meaningful education for their learners. My film is about hope, not hopelessness, even in the face of major challenges.
I am grateful to the JAPAN PRIZE, NHK, and the Hoso Bunka Foundation which are making this documentary a reality.
(Caleb Muchungu)

The jurors unanimously agreed to award the Hoso Bunka Foundation Prize to Our TV is a carton! because of its clear educational goals and target audience. It is an inspirational program that shows resourceful teachers and their way of coping with the lack of educational infrastructure and teaching materials in Malawi. This proposal, a positive story of African people, challenges the stereotypical image of a people who, lacking initiative, simply ask for handouts. It is a creative and innovative approach that has the potential to inspire teachers regionally and globally.