Basic School System

Education and Technical Skills
CMES endeavours to provide an effective and practical second chance to disadvantaged dropout adolescent boys and girls for completing their basic education through Basic School System (BSS), which evolved through long practices. Self-motivated participation in the teaching-learning process with emphasis on a scientific and practical mindset and competencies, are some essential elements of BSS. As income generation is an imperative for this group, BSS, therefore, emphasizes on technology based skills education along with the normal primary and junior secondary level education, made immediately relevant to environment and skills for improving the quality of life and livelihood.

Student Enrolment

CMES enrolls two types of students - (a) mainstream students and (b) diversified students.

(a) Mainstream students are disadvantaged adolescents aged 12 years or above who are either dropouts from formal education system or did not get the chance to get primary education at all. During the year 2009, 12508 students remained enrolled in the BSS as mainstream students of which 5777 are boys and 6731 are girls.

(b) Diversified students are those who participate in different trade courses by paying a small amount of fee. These usually last three to six months. Some 350 students at a time are now in courses in various trades.

Education method

The duration of the Basic School System (BSS) of CMES is five years and is conducted in the Basic School (BS), Advanced Basic School (ABS) and Rural Technology Centre (RTC).

Class Description:

Year	Classes of BSS	Equivalent class in general education system	Place for conducting classes
1	Angkur (Germination)	Class 1	BS
2	Bikash (Developing)	Class 2	BS
3	Agroshor-I (Advanced-I)	Class 3 and 4	ABS and RTC
4	Agroshor-II (Advanced-II)	Class 5 and 6	ABS and RTC
5	Agroshor-III (Advanced-III)	Class 7 and 8	ABS and RTC

The school day is divided into an inner campus (classroom) and outer campus (practising and skill attaining).

CMES students can engage in income generating activities by practising the received knowledge from BSS and thus become competent to deal with real-life works. The learners get to relate their attained knowledge with their real life which is done by our method of Apon Bhubon and Mukto Lekhapora. The concepts developed within BSS Apon Bhubon (Own World) and Mukto Lekhapora (Unbound Literacy) make the education effective for the day-to-day application in the students’ life and livelihood. Apon Bhubon is an extension of the text book where the students go beyond a particular piece in the text book and try to create something of their own on that general theme within their own experience - for example replacing the travel story given in the text book by a travel story which he/she actually undertook. This is one attempt to create that important connection which usually is severely lacking. The Mukto Lekhapora is about using a diversity of texts some brought in from various real-life sources, others created through the process of teaching-learning. This somewhat liberates the students from the monotony and limitations of the textbook and helps in giving the literacy competencies much beyond that.

The other part of education in BSS is the technical skill training of livelihood trade. This begins with a core course on basic technology and then specializes on a trade. The curriculum for the trade courses are designed in a way that it helps train the students through a participatory method. Garments, mushroom, vermicompost, woodwork, cottage masonry, workshop, poultry, apiculture, nursery, craft candle, soap making, bookbinding, computer operation etc. are some of the trade courses offered at CMES.

Competency Assessment

To measure the competency of all the students, CMES implements two assessment tools it developed- (a) Competency for Effective Basic Education (CEBE) for general education assessment and (b) Competency and Skills in Livelihood Technology (CSLT) for technical education assessment. These try to measure competencies in actual use with creativity and ability from the students rather than the usual rote learning.

Student Government

CMES has always emphasized on the participation and ownership of students. For this, Student Government is formed with selected members from the students to develop their leadership quality as well as to ensure their participation in management. Student Government helps to maintain an enthusiastic and joyful environment in the school and increases the interest of the students in the school activities. Regular enthusiastic elections of student government take place in all schools.

Home-to-Home interventions by the students

CMES has designed home-to-home intervention as an integral part of the Basic School System that has added a new dimension to the community welfare actions by the adolescents within its programs. Here, in weekly interventions students help the neighbourhood with technical assistance and voluntary service in works related to health, environment, sanitation etc.

Amar Lab (My Laboratory)

Science and technology education became interesting and enjoyable to our students when we introduced a small laboratory package named ‘Amar Lab’ or My Laboratory. Actually it is a box equipped with various low cost tools and instruments such as thermometer, batteries, magnifying glass, one-band radio, magnet, hammer, screwdriver, pliers, drill-machine, modeling clay, mirror, iron-filings, brass-wire, vinegar, potassium per manganate etc. Our students follow a book suggesting various science activities, that goes with it, as well as the lessons in their science and basic technology classes. ‘My Laboratory’ helps them to enhance their working ability with the various technologies once they start learning their trade.

Book lending library

To enhance the learning and reading efficiency and to enrich our students’ depth of knowledge, a library has been established in every school where books on various important topics are available for the students. A member of the Student Government maintains the libraries and the ‘book lending register’. These libraries are helping to grow a habit of reading books among the students.

CMES Graduates
	After a student passes the Advance-3 level from an ABS or RTC, he/she comes out of the CMES education system as a CMES graduate. The main emphasis has always been on creating skilled graduates in the respective trade. Some graduates work in the ABS or RTC in the school production unit. Market survey is conducted to assess the demand for various products produced by the graduates. The graduates are encouraged to work as decentralized partners to CMES in which CMES tries to obtain bulk orders from a higher market and distribute these among the graduates. CMES also tries to create job opportunities for both the graduates and diversified students. Some graduates are employed by CMES as Technical Assistant (TA) or Assistant Teacher (AT) depending on their capability.
A total of 925 mainstream students graduated in 2008. CMES has conducted an experimental project in which students have been placed in apprenticeship with local enterprises for part of the time. Called Internship in Real life Enterprise (IRE), the project has now been mainstreamed within BSS.

Community Working Committee (CWC)
It is the community people who donated land for BS, ABS and RTC, they monitor the school activities and provide various services and occasionally commodities to the programme too. Enthusiastic and self-motivated community people who contribute in the school program are the members of CWC. This is an important body to create the community’s sense of ownership of the CMES programs.

Case Story
I am Shilpi Khatun of Jotshatnala village, Chirirbandar, Dinajpur. I am the youngest among two sisters and one brother. We did not have any fixed source of income as my father was a day labourer. Because of this condition of our family I, along with my sisters and brother, could not get much education. My elder sister was married off when she only passed class eight. I used to read in Satnala Model School at that time. Though I continued my study for another year I had to leave school soon as I could not afford the costs.
After this tragic end of my studies I could not go back to school anymore. During this time, some teachers from the training centre of CMES came to our village. They informed everybody that in this school of CMES we can get education and can also learn some technical skills like garments, carpentry, book-binding etc. all free of cost. My mother got interested and told the teachers that she will admit me to the school and got my name enlisted.
Next day, I along with another girl, went to the CMES Ghantaghar unit. There the teacher took a test and admitted me in the school. Since then I became a regular student again. I now get books, pen and other materials for free from the school. Here, in the trade class, I chose garments trade to develop my skill on that specific trade. I started learning this trade with special competency along with my general education. Two years had passed and I got promoted to Agroshor-3 level at the school. But at this stage again an incident changed the course of our family. My father died and we fell into severe difficulty. My brother became a rickshaw van driver and my mother started to work in other people’s house to maintain the family. I still focused on learning the garments trade. This way I slowly became an expert in my trade while also doing well in general education and gender empowerment issues. Later on in the year 2007 I passed my exam and became a graduate of CMES.
In the mean time I planned my income-earning work and took a loan of Tk. 3000 to start my business. I started to work with my own machine at my house. Now I get many orders from my neighbourhood and earn my livelihood. From my earning I can contribute financially to my family and also pay my loan installments. At present my family is in a better condition, as my earning is added to my brother and mother’s income. We do not have extreme poverty now. My mother does not want me to get married early now like my elder sister.