1. Empowering the Children of Microentrepreneurs with
Primary and Secondary Education, College
Scholarships and Loans, and Financial Services for
Their Businesses
Presented by:
Nurjahan Begum
Managing Director
Grameen Shikkha
And
Former Acting Managing
Director, Grameen Bank

2. Education and Poverty Reduction
For most poor people, education is one of the most important
weapons, like microcredit, to fight poverty.
Education not only equips the poor with necessary skills to
overcome poverty, it also broadens their views about life and
allows them to realize the broader social perspective in which
they live.

3. Grameen and Education for the Poor
Soon after Grameen started its microcredit activities it made it
mandatory for its borrowers to learn to sign their names and itself
took the responsibility of teaching it.
For a poor illiterate woman who had never held a pen in her hand,
this knowledge of how to sign her name on official papers was a
tremendous boost in her own confidence and personal
development, which she carried throughout her life.
Counting money, maintaining bank passbooks etc. increased her
knowledge and self-confidence in undertaking income generating
activities of her own.
It also encouraged her to ensure education for her children.
Children in Grameen families have always proved to be better
educated than others.

4. Grameen Efforts in Child Education
In the 1980s Grameen Bank started a
center school program to prepare its
borrowers’ children for primary
school.
Borrowers opened child-welfare
funds at their centers to pay for
expenses of these schools.
The program was expanded in many
areas of the country, benefiting
thousands of children every year. As
the program expended, necessity for a
special institution to deal with
education was felt.

5. Foundation of Grameen Shikkha
In 1997 Professor Yunus established Grameen Shikkha (Education).
Its objectives were:
• 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.
• To conduct research and undertake experimentation in the
field of education.

6. Life Oriented Education Program
This was a one-year basic literacy program for illiterate Grameen
Bank women borrowers and their teenage daughters, providing
reading, writing, calculation and life oriented skills to its beneficiaries.
Vocational training was also provided to some of them.

7. Early Childhood Development (ECD) Program
Grameen Shikkha started this program in 2001.
This program comprised pre-schools, ECD advocacy and ECD care giving
training.
By 2010, Shikkha had trained more than 100,000 students at its pre-
schools. All of them were registered in primary school. Another 13,000 are
receiving training in 2011.

8. ECD Program...
Besides pre-academics, the pre-school curriculum includes activities
for cognitive, language, social, emotional and self-actualization
development through different physical and psychological
stimulations like play, rhymes, singing etc.

9. Grameen Shikkha Scholarship
Management Program
In 2003 Grameen Shikkha
started a scholarship
management program to provide
financial support to poor
meritorious students especially in
rural areas of Bangladesh on life-
long basis (until completion of
studies).

10. How to Sponsor A Student
 By entrusting an amount of Tk. 100,000 (US$1,500) or its
multiple with Grameen Shikkha, any individual or institution
may start a scholarship of 500 taka or its multiple per month
for a poor student. The deposit is invested by GS and
scholarship is provided out of its income, keeping the deposit
intact.
 The sponsor may also start a scholarship program by donating
only the scholarship money plus a service charge to Shikkha.
 Every scholarship program has a name as given by the
sponsor and is conducted anywhere and at any educational
institution in Bangladesh as chosen by the sponsor.
 Students are selected, according to criteria set by sponsor,
from poor background and with good academic performance.
 When a scholar finishes his/her studies, a new student replaces
him/her.

11. How SMP is Managed
 GS takes full responsibility of management of the scholarship.
 It selects students for sponsors and sends scholarship money to the
students through account transfer.
 It follows up students’ academic progress and informs sponsors about
scholar’s progress at least once a year.
 Publishes news on the program in its own publications and web site.

12. GS Scholarship Program...
Students receive
scholarship money
from their local bank
branch through
account transfer.
More than 3,200
students – from
primary to university
level – have so far
been given support.
More than half of the Nobel Laureate and Grameen Shikkha Chairman Prof.
scholars are girls. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Shikkha Managing
Director Ms. Nurjahan Begum with some GS scholars

13. GS Scholarship Program...
Currently, 520 students at undergraduate and post graduate level are receiving
scholarship from Grameen Shikkha. Subject wise distribution of these scholars
is given below:
Medical Engineering Business Others Total
Girl 87 40 42 197 366
Boy 16 26 27 85 154
Maximum amount for a higher education scholarship is 5,000.00 taka per
month.
A higher education scholar receives a maximum of 5,000.00 taka per month as
scholarship.

14. Non-formal Primary Schools for Slum Children
In 2005 Grameen Shikkha started a non-
formal primary school program for slum
children in Dhaka.
Organized in one-room schools, these
schools provide basic literacy competencies
to about 600 slum children (20 schools
each with 30 students) in Dhaka over a
period of five years.
Students receive lessons in native language,
simple English and math, environment and
social responsibilities.

15. Vocational Training Program
Since 2008 GS has been conducting a vocational training program
for poor school-dropout young men and women with the objective
of assisting them find self and wage employment through
vocational skills.

16. Vocational...
Funded by C&A Europe, this center
provides training on trades like
industrial sewing, garment machine
mechanics, electrical & electronic
control, electronics &
telecommunications, computer
applications, mobile phone servicing,
solar home system management etc.
and has so far trained about 1,500
young men and women.
Shikkha has also trained workers of
Grameen Shamogree (Products) and
Grameen Shakti (Energy) and
conducted temporary training centers
in some areas of Bangladesh.

17. GS VTP : An Update
Trade wise graduation as on September 2011:
Boy Girl Total
Electrical & electronic control 100 0 100
Elec. house wiring/fan motor rewinding 47 0 47
Electronics 87 2 89
Industrial sewing 81 98 179
Dressmaking & tailoring 17 147 164
Solar 154 0 154
Mobile phone servicing 164 0 164
Garment machine mechanics 85 0 85
Computer applications & Internet 347 192 539
Computer hardware 7 0 7
Graphics 5 3 8
Total: 1,094 442 1,536

18. Higher Education Loan Program of Grameen Bank
In 1997 Grameen Bank started a Higher Education Loan Program for its
borrowers’ children on very easy terms: no interest during studies,
repayment in small installments after completion of studies, and only 5%
interest charged after completion of studies.
Till September 2011, a total of 49,459 students were given $35.52 million
under this loan. Of these students, 11,289 were girls.

19. Grameen Bank Scholarship Program
Grameen Bank also has a scholarship program for its borrowers’
children. Every year nearly 27 thousand scholarships are disbursed.
50% of these scholarships are reserved for girls.
Till September 2011, a total of 132,978 students received $3.00
million as scholarship. 77,463 of these scholars were girls.

20. Foreign Scholarship for Grameen Bank
Borrowers’ Children
Grameen Bank is also arranging
scholarships for its borrowers’
children to study abroad and has
developed cooperation with some
international institutions / universities
like:
• Ewha Women University, Seoul.
• Asian University for Women,
Bangladesh.
• Yayasan Khazanah Foundation,
Malaysia.
Professor Muhammad Yunus with
More than 40 students are now Grameen scholars studying abroad
studying abroad with full scholarship.

21. New Entrepreneur Loan for Grameen Bank
Children
To facilitate self-employment of Grameen borrowers’ children who have
completed higher education, Grameen Bank also started this loan scheme.
Motto behind this loan program is self-employment: We will never ask
anyone for a job; we will rather create job for others.
Till September 2011 more than $1.00 million was disbursed under this
program.

22. New Entrepreneur Loan...
Beneficiaries may take loans for any income generational work. Some
of schemes under this program are setting up of education center,
computer center, mobile phone sales and service center, pharmacy,
departmental store, cattle farm, apiculture, fish and shrimp cultivation,
sewing machine, poultry feed etc.

23. Conclusion
In a poor country like Bangladesh, higher education is often a
mere dream for a poor child. But Grameen has not only made this
dream a reality for thousands of poor children, it has also added
new dimensions to its education program through education loans
and arranging of scholarships at renowned universities abroad.
Grameen’s education program is helping thousands of poor
students in enlightening their lives and removing illiteracy and
poverty from the lives from the lives of themselves and their
families.

24. Thank You for Your
Kind Attention