Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES)

Through a network of schools, Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) promotes a curriculum offering practical vocational skills and appropriate technologies in rural areas. CMES is replacing traditional rote learning, a widespread practice in rural Bangladesh, with life-oriented technological skills, thus integrating the two worlds of learning and work. The centre reaches out to 20,000 students each year, 66% being adolescent girls, through a network of 500 basic schools, advanced basic schools and Rural Technology Centres (RTCs) that influence educational practices throughout Bangladesh.

CMES combines a basic curriculum with an emphasis on economically relevant life skills including soap and candle making, computer skills, mechanics, garment making, carpentry, poultry farming, pottery, apiculture, vermi-composting, solar electricity, and electronics. Goods produced in the school are marketed to provide both a revenue source and an economic incentive for students to stay in school. Through its groundbreaking adolescent girls programme, females whose education is often neglected in Bangladesh can gain economic skills traditionally limited to boys. They receive loans from the CMES microcredit programme for young people and learn about their personal rights, including reproductive health.

Advanced basic schools and Rural Technology Centres are available to students interested in pursuing a higher level of education. At CMES's Rural Centre for Joyful Science Activities, researchers are developing applicable technological solutions for village life, such as low-cost, solar electric micro-utilities to provide electricity to bazaars and village huts. CMES has already applied this technology in an affordable, commercial manner.