The New Idea

Since founding his organization in 1978, enrollment in Sobhan's schools rose 44.8%, as compared to the national rise of 5.6% over the same period. In his first year he cut the dropout rate in his schools in half. His innovations are specifically designed to remove many of the barriers which cause children from poor families to leave Bangladeshi schools.

The Problem

Because of the way the education system in Bangladesh has evolved, poor children face serious obstacles to education. Schools depend on parents or outside tutoring for much of children's instruction. Parents are held fully responsible for the child's achievement, although many poor parents are illiterate and can neither tutor their children nor pay for tutors. In addition, many parents want their children to help at home after school, leaving the children no time for homework.

These problems, coupled with cultural norms, mean that many grown women in Bangladesh are extremely uneducated. Given the traditional conservative culture, women in most families are captive in domestic or household jobs, unable to get even basic schooling. Sobhan deals with the obstacles to both women and poor children.

The Strategy

Sobhan's strategy includes redistributing the three to four hours that students normally spend in school. Whereas most government schools have classes of thirty minutes each, his method doubles class time. The hour is carefully broken down into: a review of the previous lesson, presenting the new lesson, and evaluation. He also splits the class into small groups, designating individual students as group leaders. This approach builds leadership skills and confidence and encourages student attendance.

In addition to reforming the academic system in the schools, Sobhan has launched several complementary school-based programs to motivate and educate the students, and aid them financially. A school co-op store buys school materials wholesale, sells them at bargain prices, and distributes dividends at the end of the year among those children still enrolled in school. A tree nursery and planting program serves similar ends while helping to slow deforestation.

Sobhan has initiated several other community-outreach programs as well. During the flooding in early Fall 1988, Sobhan formed what became the first local non-governmental voluntary relief assistance to distribute food and medicine to the victims. He researched the malnutrition crisis in Bangladesh, and has created school-based poultry farms whose purpose is to teach children poultry farming. In addition, he has organized the attendance of about 3000 Imams (Muslim priests) to participate in a series of training sessions which focus on the reduction of illiteracy among adults and those children who attend Islamic schools.

Educators' responses to the ASBE methods have been overwhelmingly favorable. Sobhan began work in 1978 with three teachers and 75 students. In 1984, the government of Bangladesh gave him all 110 schools in Tangile District. A year later they gave him an additional 1,180 schools. That year, 960 teachers were trained, funded partly by UNESCO. In 1985, another 1,780 primary schools adopted Sobhan's methods. By July 1986, the Bangladeshi New Nation newspaper estimated that 14,500 students were benefiting from the new system. Sobhan claims to have organized training for 1,380 additional teachers in 1987. By the mid 1990s, in the face of a notoriously stiff bureaucracy, he managed to persuade over 7,000 schools to adopt his approach, and the government recommended national application of his innovations.

Additionally, at the beginning of 1995 the new governor of the state of Brasilia in central Brazil announced in his inauguration that he would bring this "Bangladesh Model" to his state.