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Empowering Rural Girls and Women Through Inclusive Open Education and Skills Development
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Abstract
The Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) has developed a community rooted model to challenge and shift entrenched mindsets that limit girls’ education and autonomy in rural Bangladesh. Since 1978 CMES programs like the Basic School System (BSS) and Adolescent Girls’ Program (AGP) have provided second-chance education to over 62,000 girls and women, integrating vocational training with gender rights education to disrupt cycles of early marriage, financial dependence, and exclusion.
Building on this foundation, CMES now introduces open and distance learning (ODL) technologies, Moodle and Aptus Pi as tools not only for education delivery, but for cultural transformation. These platforms are used offline in remote settings, providing flexible, modular training in skills such as Dress making & tailoring, Computer, vermicomposting, and agro-based enterprise. Courses are locally contextualized and designed to be gender responsive, making learning accessible for girls often restricted to their homes.
Crucially, this model embeds community accountability through Family Working Groups and Local Support Groups, who act as allies in reshaping norms around girls’ education and employment. Employment linkages are formalized through partnerships with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) and private sector actors, while microfinance institutions like BRAC and Grameen Bank support women-led business development.
This paper outlines how inclusive open education, grounded in local realities and supported by digital innovation and community structures, can catalyze new mindsets. It shows that learning, when linked with livelihood and rights, can lead to structural change in the lives of rural girls and women.
PCF11 Plus: Beyond the Forum
Sub-Theme: Changing mindsets for inclusive open education
Paper ID: 6863
Subject
Open Education, Gender, Women in Education, Rural Communities, Aptus, Skills Development
Country
Bangladesh
Region
Asia
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Date
2025-09
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Publisher
Commonwealth of Learning (COL)