INTRODUCTION

The Grameen Bank started to function as a Bangladesh pilot project in 1976. It main objectives were (a) to extend credit to people in abject poverty, (b) to protect the poorest section from exploitation of the rural money lenders, © to generate employment for the unemployed and the under -employed,(d) to assist poor people to develop socio-economic strength through mutual support and (e) to break the cycle of poverty that has been the fate of many families for generations, With these visions for human development, it became a bank with a separate Ordinance in 1983. At present, it has over two million members of which women comprise 94 percent. It has made remarkable strides in elevating its members from the state of absolute poverty to self-sufficiency and independence.

Grameen Banks anti-poverty too is its micro-credit program. In this program, the poor are able to solve their own problems. It adopts a participatory approach that gives to its client authority over their investment decision. The Bank's program for the poor has surpassed those of Government of Bangladesh and other agencies because it provides loans mainly to people living below the poverty line. As a result, the Grameen women have gradually become empowered as their status in their families and in the community has enhanced. Not only are these women more productive, hey are also successful in generating employment for others. Research finding show that Grameen borrowers have incomes that are higher than other groups within a similar social stratum. The Grameen micro-credit program has therefore shattered existing poverty myths, i.e. the belief that (a) the poor are helpless,(b) women are most helpless © the land less poor are terrible credit-risks, (d) the poor cannot co-operate, plan ahead, take decisions, manage or service a loan,(e) a lot of credit is always better than a little credit and (f)the economy can be built by destroying the earth. Belying these myths, the beneficiaries established the very hard truth that the best development effort starts at the micro level, meaning simply, "start small' with small funds or credit, with a small community and of course personal level participataion ensuring the participation of the people. No program can succeed without understanding and acknowledging the peo0le it is trying to help.

Over years, as individual loans have increased, Grameen Bank has recognized that money alone cannot change a persons' situation to the better. One also needs t9 know how to spend that money wisely. Grameen also supports the global outlook in relation to change in the focus of education: "economic growth regardless" can no longer be regarded as a glorious way of reconciling material progress with equity, respect for the human condition and respect for the natural assets that we have a duty to hand on in good condition to future generations. Illiteracy has indeed slowed down the progress and sustainability of the economic development and social integration of Grameen member. Realixing this, Grameen Bank has decided to support within its conceptual frame work, an education program for its members. This objective is consistent with the principles of the World Declaration on Education for All. To keeping its commitment, Grameen Bank has established the Grameen Education Trust with co-operation from UNESCO (Bangkok and Paris) .With the technical support from Dhaka Ahsania Mission, the Life Oriented Education Program of Grameen Bank has been launched. As a year long pilot program, it aims towards sustainable education and promotion of social integration in order to improve the quality of life of its learners. It is hoped that this program will ultimately serve as a model for poverty eradication in this country.

1. THE LIFE ORIENTED EDUCATION PROGRAM: A PROLOGUE

Case 1:

Bina's three year old son had died.

"What happened?" I had asked.

"He had fever for the last three day," replied the child's mother.

"Didn't you call a doctor?" I asked again.

"No," she said. "If Allah has destined that he would have a short life, what good could the doctor do?"

"Did you notice anything unusual about his illness?" I inquired.

"No, except that there seemed to be a pattern in the way his temperature changed. And each time his fever started to exceed, he would shiver very vigorously."

"Could your son have had malaria?" I asked.

"I don't know what Malaria is", the mother replied.

Bina has been a grameen Bank member for nine years.

Case.2

Most of the members of centre 18 are Grameen Bank members for nine or ten years. Most of them have taken loans to buy ducks, chicken or milch cows.

"We were penniless before Grameen Bank started to help us. Some time our chicken and cattle die of sickness. In such cases, it becomes very difficult to repay our loans . But we cannot understand or recognize sickness.

Case.3

"You say that we will be able to live better if we are literate. But we can get any amount of money as loans. We can get loans for purchasing anything from a chicken to a truck, for building a house or starting a business. All we need to know is our signature. I see no need for education. It is a waste of time. I will be able to make more profit if I collect Jute for two hours."Ajerun

Case.4

marium had neglected giving her daughter anti tetanus vaccines timely. Furthermore, Marium depended on the help of an untrained local midwife. This midwife was so ignorant that she believed that mariums daughter's abdomen must be tightly tied around near the chest so that the baby does not come jout of the mothers' mouth during labour labour pain. She also applied egg white and mustard oil into the vaginal passage to case delivery. When there were too many complications, a local doctor was called and only then and with the persuasion and active help of neighbours did Marium take her daughter to a hospital. But it was too late. Both mother and child died. Marium has been a Grameen Bank member for ten years and is also a group leader.

Case .5

Hamida has two milch cows that gives six k.g. of milk every day. She sells each K.G. of milk for 15 takas to a milkman. She can easily earn more by making and selling milk products like Ghee, sweets or yogurt. But like many others she believes that a cow owner should never put the cow's milk in contact with fire this would cause the quantity of milk produced by the cow to decrease. Hamida has been a Grameen Bank member for seven years.

2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF LIFE ORIENTED EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Life Oriented Education Program began with the opinion survey and need assessment of nearly a thousand such Grameen Bank members. It was greatly evident from the survey that not only was an education program important for providing literacy and accounting skills to these women but it was also essential for changing their wrong attitudes, superstitions and bisuoiness that would always hamper any kink of development, progress or efforts for empowerment. Most significantly, it would assist in helping the women to function efficiently as group member, i.e. Grameen Bank member, community members and individuals.

Beside the micro credit program, Grammen Bank has been organizing workshsops for its groups leaders. These workshops provide short term discussions on issues on health, sanitation, nutrition, hygiene, law ,etc. and are aimed to raise consciousness of the members. The group leaders who attend the workshop are supposed to dissimulate the acquired knowledge and skills to fellow members. But in most cases, this does not happen.

The Program has taken into account drawbacks and short coming of previous Grameen Bank efforts to educate its members. The existing non-formal education programs also been studied. The main characteristic of this program of Education for All (APPEAL) guidelines.

3. CONTENT AREA OF THE PROGRAM.

Its target groups being specific, it has also incorporated the Grameen Bank awareness rainsing workshop issues into its program. Survey of the community has been conducted before furmulating jthe content areas. Interview of the members have been taken at the planning stage to discover the felt and real needs of the community as a whole and the target group in particular. Thereafter , the members needs have been transformed into learning objects in relations to which the content areas have been identified.

Besides these contents, the program gives importance to events and occurrences that take palace during the program. These events are also transformed into content areas and integrated into the program (elections, health issue, etc.). This flexibility is an important feature of the program.

The program aims to provide skills on literacy, numeracy, accounting as well as to impart awareness development session on diverse areas such as health, legal matters, civic consciousness, social services, income generations, business and professional developments etc.

The holistic nature of the program aims at enabling its learners not only to "know", but also to "do", to "be" and to " live together" and thus keeps with missions of UNESCO and that of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty First Century.

4. THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The Life Oriented Education Program is being implemented at Kalampur Branch of Grameen Bank under Dhamrai Thana. Twenty two grameen Bank centres have been selected for this program and are called "learning centres" for the purpose of the program .Most of the centres are divided into two shifts. Each shift consists of about 20 learners. Each shift is equipped with stationary for the centre and for the learners. A " facilitator" is responsible for each shift. Learning sessions are held two hours in each shift for six days a week. There are two supervisor who each supervise 11 centres and the related facilitators. The supervisiors are accountable to the program office.

A criterion of the program is that the learners, facilitators, supervisor and the program officer of this program are all female. The minimum qualification of the facilitators are high school graduates. The facilitators are Bachelor of Arts graduates. The supervisors and facilitators of the program have been appointed after an elaborate selection process. The Kalampur branch office assistants and the branch manager played a positive role in assisting program.

The supervisorand the facilitators have been provided with in service training usually which takes place at the beginning of each phase, in accordance with the program design.

The role of the facilitators has been very important in the program. Being an experimental program, the success of the program mainly depended on the competency of the facilitators. The provision of training is thus very important. Monthly meetings are held regularly and this also gives scope for resolving any kind of problem encountered.

A characteristic of the program is its flexibility. Considering the fact that adult learners have to give time to important personal activities, the timing of each shift has been fixed according to the learners convenience. The program also takes into consideration and adjusts accordingly to exceptional circumstances, e.g. seasonal preoccupation regarding weather or crop production. This program regards need for adaptability and keeping in mind that the program is for the learners, the program adapts to learners needs

5. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAM

The Life Oriented Education Program has four implementations phases. Each phase consists of 3 months (60 working days). A facilitator's Guidebook has been provided for each phase of the program and

is provided to the facilitator during the training.

Providing education in a more meaningful nature, the program provides (a) basic literacy i.e. reading, writing, numeracy and accounting skills and (b) functional education i.e. life oriented skills and awareness raising

A main criteria of the program is that it does not use traditional educational primers for teaching basic literacy. An innovative participatory teaching learning process is being use for imparting basic literacy and numeracy skills. Basic literacy and numeracy is provided in a two-day method in which everything that is taught on the first day is revised on the second. If a learner is absent from a session for some reason, this method enables that learners to catch up on the next day. The teaching learning method is described briefly further on.

A Facilitator's Guidebook has also been provided for the functional part of education. The functional contents have been identified through need assessment. Education related to the physical, socio-cultural and economic aspects of the learner has been provided keeping in consideration the specifications of the target group. This guidebook contains basic information on 95 issues related to the lives of the learners in some way or another.

A vry important feature of this program is the functional awareness raising method. The Facilitator's Guidebook for Functional Content is used as an aid. The topic for discussion is not pre determined. This is another feature of the program. The learners choose any current issue of discussions. Learners are divided into small groups leader every other day. The group leader initiates a group discussion on the selected issue. Thereafter the group leader writes the identified problems and alternate solutions in a poster paper. Group posters from all the groups are then put on a display board. Then each group leaders gives a presentation on her group findings. After presentation of all the group, the facilitator help to generalize and prioritixe the group findings. While the groups work proceeds, the facilitator goes around the groups and helps where necessary. After the presentation, the facilitator takes the help of the facilitator's guidebook and selects the essay on the selected topic. Learning then participate in reading out this essay . Learners read out a paragraph each. The facilitator then takes the help of the questions given with the essay and discusses the topic by relating to the learners are able to the learners generalization in relation with the information from the essay. In this way, the learners are able to verify their own understanding about the selected topic as well as get new information. Facilitators also avail information from books, booklets and other sources of information from the resource centre . The facilitators informs the supervisors in case information on a certain topic or issuein inadequate or unavailable. The supervisors procures necessary information.

This method enables the learner to learn to work in groups and to be able to identify and choose a group leader. It ensures practice and development of learners writing and reading skills and gradually develops the learners analytical abilities and broadens their horizon of understanding. Awareness raising is a difficult and sensitive matter. Adult learners are usually

the learning process in doing so succeeds to initiate bringing change in the intellectual framework of the learners. This is an important characteristic of the program.

Recognizing the diversity of the socio-economic situation of the learners, diverse education alternatives have been provided in this program. This criteria also makes the program quite unique. A centrally located centre has been upgraded to a Resource center. This is the project office at the field level. Program materials are stored here. It also functions as a library as well as a meeting place for learners, facilitators and community members. A monthly meeting is held here regularly at the last week of each month. Books, booklets,reading materials, games etc. are available here for the learners and for community usage. Information on the functional issues are available here. This provision has ensured that when the program is complete and withdrawn, the learners do not lapse into illiteracy due to unavailability of reading material or access to material that do exist.

In addition, audio visual materials are also used as teaching aids. These technical support materials are delivered to each center by the help of a Recourse Van named "Hiramon" . The Hiramon is a self technichal support unit powered by a dry cell battery/solar panel. For the purpose of broadcasting the audio visual programs, the Hiramon is equipped with a television, a radio -cassette player and a video cassette player. In addition, the Hiramon is also a mobile library. It has a collection of books, booklets, games and other continuing education materials. From the second phase, learners from any center borrow these materials for learning or entertainment purpose. This system gives scope for practice of skill acquired in the first phase. The topics of the audio visual programs unique and attractive.

A hallmark of this program is that within the short time frame of only one year, the program provides basic literacy and numeracy skills and simultaneously provides education to raise the critical awareness of the learners. Then it gradually merges into a continuing education program. Ten support learning materials are provided from the second phase and continue for the use of the learners up to the last phase, before the in service training. The content of the materials and the timing of the publication of the materials takes into considerations the fact that the learners intellect and understanding of one's self in relation to personal and environmental circumstances gradually develops with the completion of each phase of the program. Illiterate learners who could never speak for themselves can learning materials of this program has incorporate this gradually developed demand of the target group. In this way, the voices of the target group is being heard. This is another hallmark of this program.

Besides the programs own material input, the program provides monthly publication of reading materials developed for neo-literates from other N.G.Os. these include news letters and magazines. These materials are read in groups. A different learner has to read every day. The best reader of a groups receives the reading material as a reward at the end of the month. This creates incentive for the learners to try to improve their reading skills. The inclusion of these materials have not only made the program attractive to the learners but beside giving scope for development of adequate reading habits it also helps the learners come out of their initial fear and shyness to try read material outside their own program. The program equally gives emphasis on the development of adequate writing skills of the learners. Majority of the learners are able to write with ease after the second phase. Emphasizing on development of reading and writing skills is another feature of the program.

The inclusion of learning from Real Learning Material (RLMs) and Learner Generated Material (LGMS) has added sustainability to the learning of the learners. The learners learn to take lesson from their own environment and from their own resources. Therefore, after a period of time, they are able to become teachers and learners at the same time. In doing so they also gain the ability to learn through out life.

6. MAIN FEATURES OF THE PROJECT.

The program has been designed after extensive research. It has taken into consideration the shortcoming of previous non formal education programs.

The education programs has been integrated with the program of the organization for which it has been designed.

The program is voluntary for the members of the organization.

The program is flexible and adaptive. The timing of learning sessions have been set according to the convenience of the learners.

The program uses an innovative participatory approach to learning.

No use of traditional educational primers for teaching basic literacy.

Content of functional awareness issues have been selected through need assessment of the target group.

Supervisors and facilitators have been selected from the locality.

Supervisors and facilitators receive intensive in service training.

The learners learn through active participatory learning.

The program proceeds in a four phase wise design (three months each). Teaching method is different for each phase.

The program gives importance to sustainable development of reading and writing skills.

The program uses diverse alternate educational aids. These are:

(f) Resource Van "Hiramon" for Audio Visual programs and mobile library.

(g) Resource Center for project and community library.

(h) Ten support booklets.

(i) Usage of Real Learning Material (RLMs) and Learning Generated Materials (LGMs).

(j) Usage of materials for neo literates for continuing education. (wall magazine newsletter, magazine, etc.)

The ten support booklets are provided for different phases of the program and have been developed during the program.

The booklets have incorporated the learners needs.

The program merges into a continuing education program and therefore, the learners gain courage to use continuing education materials while within the program (like news paper, magazines, RLMs, LGMs, etc.).

Functional education is provided by a unique delivery mechanism.

The Program is closely monitored. It has its own MIS.

7. LIFE ORIENTED EDUCATION PROGRAM: TIME DIVISION OVER THE PHASE.

Total program: 1 year:

Basic literay: 6 months

Continuing Education 6 month

20 sessions per month on an average X 12 month: 240 sessions.

2 hours per session X 240 sessions: 480 hours.

Phase I (3 months): 60 sessions X 2 hours: 120 hours.

Phase II (3 months): 60 sessions X 2 hours: 120 hours.

Phase III(3 months): 60 sessions X 2 hours: 120 hours.

Phase IV(3 months): 60 sessions X 2 hours: 120 hours.

Total: 12 month 240 sessions :480 hours.

8. EPILOGUE

"A learner of center 18, Ajeun has been a Garameen Bank member for ten years. Being illiterate, she used a symbol to sign her name for with drawing money from her account. Recently, she could not withdraw money from her account because now she signs her name properly. The bank refused her papers because her signature was no longer similar to the symbol she had so far used . With great pride, she refused to use the previous symbol. She had all her paper changed and now signs her name properly."

"Sahera, Nurjahan and Nasima are learners or center 15. Being illiterate, they worked as day lobourers, digging soil all day long to earn a living. Today they have successfully been selected for appointment as factory workers at the Export Processing Zone. They had to qualify in a written examination."

Contact Info:

Shahnewaz Khan
Director
Training and Material Development Division
Dhaka Ahsania Mission

Tahsinath Ahmed
Program Officer
UNESCO
Life Oriented Education Program.