Grameen Shikkha (education)

Mission

· To provide financial support to poor meritorious students in the form of scholarship.· To promote mass education through formal and non-formal methods.· To organize facilities for education and training.· To promote new and appropriate technologies such as satellite, Internet, distance learning methods etc. as well as innovate ideas and methods for development of education with a view to alleviating illiteracy. · To conduct research and undertake experimentation in the field of education

Secondary Scholarships of Grameen Shikkha - program began in 2002; is now doubling every 3 years: over 132,000 scholarships as at March 2011 - (see para 19)

Grameen Foundation scholar Shoma Karmaker with her mother

This is seen as a talent hunt program. GS hunts talents from among the poor, especially in the rural areas of Bangladesh. Students don’t have to apply for a GS scholarship, rather GS itself looks for meritorious students in poorer families, collects their profiles through the Grameen network, and awards scholarships to deserving students. Sponsored students are regularly monitored on their progress of studies and given counseling when required.

To start a scholarship program the sponsor has to put a deposit with GS. GS invests the deposit and gives out scholarships from the income of the deposit. So the deposit remains intact and the scholarship program runs perpetually. An amount equivalent to 6% of the deposited amount is given out as scholarship every year. For example, if an amount of Tk. 100,000 (about US$1,500) is deposited, a scholarship of Tk.500 (about $7.5) per month is given as scholarship. Scholarship will begin six months after deposit of the fund with GS. GS takes this time to generate income from the deposit and to find out a deserving student for the scholarship.

An MOU is signed between the sponsor and GS on conduction of the scholarship program. Name and place of scholarship, beneficiary selection and replacement criteria etc. are detailed in the MOU.

In 2009 GShikkha opened a vocational training center in Savar, Dhaka for poor school-dropout young men and women with the objective of assisting them find self and wage employment through vocational skills. This center provides training on trades like industrial sewing, garment machine mechanics, electrical & electronic control, electronics & telecommunications, computer operation, mobile phone servicing, solar home system management etc. GS also conducted a one-year dressmaking and tailoring training for poor young women and men in Chilmari, a poor and flood-prone northern area, so the graduates could work at the local factories of Grameen Shamogree (Grameen Products), another company in the Grameen family. GS is also conducting a regular training program for Grameen Shakti (Grameen Energy) technicians and field assistants.