Education for Everyone
Everyone, particularly the poor, needs a good education. Is it possible?
Overview
Developed countries have had the advantage of being able to provide expensive education to most of their citizens, including in the inner cities where many need education to life themselves out of poverty's grind. But the poor countries of the world can only dream of providing that type of education to their wider population. Innovative alternatives to the developed world's educational models, which received a hugh bust during the Covid-19 pandemic, are taking shape in the form of advanced online education.
MOOCS
MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses)
bringing thousands of advanced online courses to students around the world
Khan Academy
Our mission is to provide a free, world‑class education
for anyone, anywhere
Khan Academy is non-for-profit online educational organization with a goal of “changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.”
It was created in 2006 and is funded by a variety of charitable foundations, businesses and individuals. It does not appear to receive any government funding.
It currently has more than 4500 videos that teach everything from business to physics and the humanities. A sophisticated computer system provides coaching tools for teachers and parents to assist students and follow their progress.
Video: Salman Khan talks about how he got started
How it works for students
Students can make use of our extensive video library, interactive challenges, and assessments from any computer with access to the web.
- Complete custom self-paced learning tool
- A dynamic system for getting help
- A custom profile, points, and badges to measure progress
Coaches, parents, and teachers
Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy.
- Ability to see any student in detail
- A real-time class report for all students
- Better intelligence for doing targeted interventions
Coursera
Founded in early 2012, Coursera is a non-profit that envisions a world where anyone, anywhere has the power to transforom their lives through learnng. It ipartners with more than 275 leading universities and companies to bring flexible, affordable, job-relevant online learning to individuals and organizations worldwide.
Listen to one of the founders, who grew up with all the educational advantages one could have, explain why she feels passionately about bringing the advanages of education to every corner of the world.
Video: Daphne Koller explains Corsera
They solicit donations and suggest very reasonable monthly donations as the best way to support their efforts to make education available to everyone.
Private Initiatives
South Korea’s Private Teachers
Using online classroom techniques, private teachers in South Korea have become rich by spreading the reach of their teaching to many more students through “hagwons” or private, after-school academies. Kim Ki-Hoon makes $4 million per year.
Sixty years ago the majority of citizens were illiterate. Now it ranks 5th in the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) far above the United States 21st place.
A free market in education is also valuable because private educational organnizations must produce a quality product for a reasonable price or they go out of business.