Bookmarks 09-May-2010

Class difference
Riddhi Shah. Boston Globe. 09-May-2010
“The last two decades have witnessed the rising popularity of low-cost private schools across the developing world. Researchers estimate that there are now 1 million budget schools in countries like Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Uganda. Started by local entrepreneurs, these schools are most often located in urban slums, operate out of a few rooms, and are run by teachers who are paid less than half the salary of a government teacher. Few receive state support or external funding.”
gml: This is a nicely balanced article, although it’s unclear if low paid teachers feel exploited. Unlike the private for-profit higher education sector in the United States, the private primary schools described in this article are local community responses to failed public schools rather than private corporate responses. As a locus for educational change, surely there is much to learn from experiments in the commons.