Under the KBAD, young men/women from each village/ward would be given an opportunity to go for higher education and acquire a degree / diploma / post-higher secondary certificate in marketable (within and outside the country) knowledge and skills. Such educated/trained persons would be expected to make efforts to pull up their family, neighbors and the village community through access to knowledge for economic and social development. The achievement of the individual will also have a demonstration effect in the village and act as an eye opener to other young people in the village. This can also bring hopes and dreams to the impoverished village community. The young men or women should have the minimum qualification (HSC, i.e. 12 years of formal education) or equivalent to gain entry to a university level institution.

Financing would be a barrier to realization of the Knowledge Based Area Development concept. It is expected that the family of the individual would bear the cost of such education/training. However, the prevailing economic situation may not permit most families to bear the cost. The introduction of an Educational Financing Scheme can partially alleviate this problem. The GOB or/and NGOs should consider developing and operating such an Educational Financing Scheme. Eventually an Educational Bank (Shikkha Bank) may be established to facilitate access of the middle class and poor to market-oriented higher education for social mobility and as a step towards realizing the vision of Knowledge Based Area Development approach. In this process, it may be possible to break away from the poverty cycle for many. The Education Bank could be the conduit to finance such persons on easy terms but on a repayable basis. This would be a radical approach to break the poverty cycle but this might also work as a catalyst as well as a role model.

The Education Bank can also finance educational institutions on easy terms for institution building but on repayable basis and also finance higher education and training of teachers. The capital for Education Bank can be mobilized through grants and loans from development organizations, share subscription from individuals with expectation of modest return on capital, and philanthropic orientation. Development of human capital of the society would be the intrinsic return to donors, while financial return at a modest rate would be an additional return to subscribers. The Education Bank is to be operated on business principles but targeted to investment in education, skill development and institution building activities relating to the same. The Education Bank can take the form of an educational cooperative.

Institutionalization of KBAD
As already been mentioned, IUBAT has established an educational cooperative in the form of IUBAT Multipurpose Cooperation Society Ltd (IMCSL) with a share capital of 50 million taka. The prime objective of IMCSL is to mobilize funds and to utilize the resources for providing repayable educational financing and scholarships to the members and their dependents. This is a prelude to establishment of a Shikkha Bank (Education Bank). Some progress has been made towards realization of this goal through expansion of the membership base to nearly 25,488, individuals. This has resulted in a membership fund of Tk.5.10 million and a share capital of Tk. 10.30 million as of January 2022. Besides, the deposits and savings in accounts is approximately Tk.13.15 million. Thus starting with a modest base the IMCSL is gaining momentum to provide substantive support to operationalization of KBAD concept.

IUBAT has established a Financial Assistance Fund (FAF) to facilitate education and training of academically eligible students with serious financial handicap. Such fund is being created out of various form of charity and is being kept segregated and maintained as an independent fund to meet this particular objective. Applicants are granted educational financing without service charge and collateral and repayment is made on an easy schedule for recycling the benefits. So far a modest sum of approximately Tk. 2,182,972/- has been raised. IUBAT faculty, officers and staff members are making modest monthly contribution to this fund to support education of children from destitute families of Bangladesh.

Thus the institutional attempt for educational financing to realize the vision of KBAD has taken the form of developing an educational cooperative and establishment of a FAF. At the same time modalities have been established to operationally support the educational cooperative and to facilitate creation of Shikkha Bank. At the same time software is being developed by Automation Unit to automate the operation of IMCSL as well as to provide better service to members.

University Education Extension Unit
In the section of Extending KBAD a call has been made to every educated individual to participate in KBAD in the form of subscribing to share capital 16 Knowledge Based Area Development of IMCSL and/or motivating individuals to avail higher professional education. To some extent, this task has been carried out informally by the members of IUBAT Community and by the volunteers outside the community. In view of the limited success of this approach as well as to achieve faster progress, IUBAT has recently created a KBAD Extension Unit using the model of agricultural extension being used to motivate farmers to adopt modern technology and inputs in farming. The main task of the University Education Extension Unit (UEEU) is to motivate and facilitate young man/women with HSC and equivalent qualification to enroll in market relevant educational programs at the tertiary level and if necessary avail the educational facilities and assistance provided by IUBAT under the KBAD concept. According to UNESCO, the participation rate in tertiary education is only 10.10% in Bangladesh i.e. out of 1367377 students who have passed HSC or equivalent examinations in 2020 only a tiny percentage will have opportunity to participate in tertiary education, more particularly in profession tertiary education. Thus, the task of UEEU is to provide information, carry extension, motivation and facilitate enrolment of young men and women from all corners of the country into IUBAT programs so that the KBAD mission of producing one technical graduate from each village of Bangladesh is realized in the shortest possible time to lay the base of a knowledge based society for prosperity.

Challenges
The challenge ahead is to stabilize the financial assistance program with good feedback for recycling of resources. Raising the remaining share capital of Tk. 39.99 million is also a substantive challenge to achieve the goal of reaching out to every village nay to every extended family unit in Bangladesh.

In the RCE Global Conference held in November 2013 at United Nations Officers Headquarter in Nairobi, Kenya, the KBAD program has been awarded as a flagship project for its contribution to supporting access to higher education for vulnerable and marginalized groups in society by the United Nations University. The United Nations University also acknowledged KBAD as a flagship project for contribution to SDG4 i.e. quality education during Covid-19 in the year 2021. The KBAD concept has been shared in two international forums abroad and found considerable acceptance, even this was highlighted in the Global Microcredit Summit in Spain.