Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) Project
The Need
Nationwide, the student-to-teacher ratio in Bangladesh is 63:1, among the worst in Asia, and 36% of Bangladeshi children never finish primary school. CMES provides a basic education and job skills to adolescent school drop-outs. Their 500 rural schools reach 20,000 students each year. Students leave the five-year CMES program with the education, job skills and self-confidence necessary to become productive members of their local community.
The Goal
The goal of our collaboration is to enhance CMES's impact by enabling them to reach more students with fewer teaching resources. Our specific objective is to develop a low-cost, context-appropriate learning tool that will allow students to proceed with their studies as a supplement to, or even independent of, direct interaction with a teacher--along with the necessary manufacturing, distribution and customer financing channels to meet this need at scale.
Partners in the project include Stanford's product design program, Harvard's School of Education and IDEO. In June 2005 and March 2006, DtM field teams, including volunteers from Stanford and IDEO, conducted an initial needs assessment with CMES in Bangladesh. In this research, we identified three key opportunities for impact:
- Reduce teacher workload: CMES teachers are required to present a broad and rigorous curriculum with few formal resources.
- Facilitate student peer-learning: CMES is experimenting with student-led group work that aims to extend teaching resources while maintaining high educational standards.
- Capture and maintain student interest: students who fail to complete CMES's five-year curriculum may lose education opportunities for life.
Our initial product point-of-view is a electronic learning tool that includes pre-recorded feedback. One approach that we are considering is adapting Leapfrog Inc's LeapPad Learning System--a teaching tool that adds interactivity to textbooks--to conditions in Bangladesh. A successful prototype will further enable Design that Matters to attract investment, enabling ongoing pilot testing and subsequent prototypes. Ultimately, a robust, field-tested learning tool will help CMES attract and retain young people to their program, deliver an outstanding education to students who would otherwise miss out, and enhance the livelihoods of CMES graduates through skills for sustainable jobs.
The Client: Centre for Mass Education in Science
The Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) in Bangladesh is a nongovernmental organization (NGO), established in 1978 by Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim. CMES is a UNESCO "partner for research," and over the last 27 years their work has had a significant impact on pedagogical methods across South Asia.
The founder, Muhammad Ibrahim, has been fascinated by science since he was a high school student. In 1961, Ibrahim founded Bijnan Samoeeki, the country's first popular science magazine, which became the platform for a popular national science movement and later, CMES. He was an Associate Scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy from 1984-1997, and is currently the Vice President of the Bangladesh Solar Energy Society.
