Students in the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) schools are the unreached children of poor landless families with a majority of girls who constitute 70 % of the total pupils. In Bangladesh, only 30-35 % of children ever start school, and by fifth grade, 75 % have dropped out. In response to the demands of village families, BRAC started village schools with a new model of non-formal primary education. Flexible time schedules, little homework, no school fees, special teacher-training for locally recruited teachers constitute the main innovation of BRAC. 95 % of students pass the exam for entry into fourth grade official primary school. BRAC has over 12,000 centres serving some 360,000 poor rural children.