The unintended consequences of free education?

Taken from Chris Blattman's blog:

From Guy Grossman and Evan Lieberman, this Ugandan New Vision article:

The day Government started paying tuition for all school going children, was the day parents ‘declared’ a holiday from taking care about their children’s education. What a shame.

Almost all school management committee became dull. Government stood at a distance and barked, but did not care to bite. Years down the road, the rot seems to be perforating its way through free education’s foundation in the country.

A decade down the road, Government is gradually realising that the parents stealthily put so much weight on its back, and this is gradually eating down the country’s quality of education.

And Evan’s two cents:

I’ve heard much the same thing from various head teachers in Kenya, absolutely lamenting the detrimental effects of free primary education (FPE)! The simple argument is that when parents don’t have to pay, they feel no stake in the school, no obligation to participate in management, and they simply delegate education to government. And because poor people in poor areas are not paying any kind of direct income tax, given low or non-existent incomes, they are not engaged in any type of fiscal contract. It’s pretty painful to think that in trying to provide universal primary education (and beyond) in these East African countries that the plan itself might actually be causing harm to the quality of learning.

The introduction of free education in Africa (or social security in Latin America) presents a short-lived opportunity to see the effect of government provision of education and other forms of welfare–relevant to US and European policy debates in this era of small government resurgence.

The laments of head teachers alone don’t convince me, but I would not be surprised if it were true. I pity that there are not (to my knowledge) studies taking advantage of the changes for a more rigorous answer.

Or are there? Reader suggestions welcome.

Was the current system of education designed for a different age?

One of the important questions Sir Ken Robinson answers in this must-watch video on Changing Education Paradigms.

Sir Ken Robinson suggests that children have been 'anaesthetised' to get through schooling, and instead we should be waking them up to discover what is inside of themselves. If this is the case then, the question is: at what stage do children learn what is inside themselves under the current education norms?

He also mentions that we need to go in the exact opposite direction of standardisation - I do agree, however struggle with how this plays out in practice. Is this why more and more people are turning towards homeschooling? Are schools currently stifling the critical - or divergent, as Sir Ken Robinson calls it - thinking abilities of children? It would be great to hear your thoughts.

Quick note: The video constantly refers to education, however I think that Sir Ken Robinson is talking about schooling. For more on the difference between schooling and education, take a look at this previous post. 

Madaar - volunteers needed!

Madaar - Open Islamic Curriculum is a project I am involved with, and we're currently looking for volunteers. If you have some time to spare - no matter how much - then get in touch, or please forward on to someone who might be interested.

Check out why you should help us here. For more about the project, take a look here. 

Has the time come for freely available academic journals?

In light of posts on Open Courses, I thought this article on academic journals being gated - and the need to change this - warranted posting. I originally read the piece over at the Aidnography blog.

I'm sure we must have all been there: you need access to a paper, but you've forgotten your Athens password, or your institution doesn't subscribe to that particular journal. Apart from this 'first world problem', the more important issue is that in theory, academic research is carried out in order to influence practice. However, you don't need me to tell you that the reality in the development and humanitarian sector can be completely different. Academic research tends to - with I'm sure a few exceptions - remain just that: in the realm of academia. If research is to do what it is meant to then, and actually change the way we do things in the field, is it time we moved towards openly available journals? At a time of various Open Source learning opportunities online, is the concept of gated papers, and therefore knowledge hoarding a little dated and contradictory in light of advocacy for free education?

Would be great to hear your thoughts - get posting in the comments box below.
 
P.S. Did you know you can follow the blog over on Twitter?

Free resources from Madaar - Open Islamic Curriculum

Shameless plug for a project I'm involved in:

Lots of new resources being uploaded today - including Maths, Social Studies and Art - and many more to come in the future.

Check out all the goodness here. It's all free.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @MadaarProject

More free knowledge

In light of past posts on Open Courses from the likes of Yale and various other top universities and institutes, I have more to share. This time from the World Bank.

The World Bank's Open Knowledge Repository is freely accessible for the public. Over 2000 books, reports and research articles. Education-related resources are - thankfully - included. Enjoy. 

Links to more Open Courses

In addition to the Open Yale Courses that I mentioned in this post. Below is a list of some more. 

Class Central lists all of the free online courses available at the links below.

From the likes of Stanford, Berkeley and Princeton: https://www.coursera.org/

As mentioned in a previous post, from MIT: http://www.mitx.mit.edu/

If you know of others, please feel free to share them in the comments box below. 

Online education? You need the internet first...

Very interesting infographic from the Oxford Internet Institute on the number of internet users worldwide. It really puts into perspective global attempts at increasing access to schooling via online learning. For example, a high proportion of African countries do not even feature on the map.  

Source: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/vis/images/?src=4e3c0200/internet_penetration.png

Open Yale Courses

Another one to add to all the fantastic Open courses and resources currently available on the web.

Open Yale Courses (OYC) provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet. The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.

Fantastic resource. Thanks to Dr Chris Blattman for sharing. Check out the courses for yourself.

Free Online Education for All

For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world.

The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. 

The full article from Forbes is here. 

This article is from last year, however raises the question of whether this approach can tackle the inaccessibility of HE in developing country contexts. Pros and cons of such an approach?