These Kids need Khan, not a NYT pity party

This sad story suggests (to me, not to the story's author, who apparently has failed to see the obvious solution) that future generations of South Africans will see things go from bad to worse unless they stop waiting for the government to come bail them out. These kids don't need a teacher to teach them in the classroom, especially since the average level of teachers in South Africa seems to be even lower than that of teachers in America's government schools (if such a thing is possible).

No, these kids already have all the teacher they need in the form of Salman Khan. If they can get onto the Internet, they can get a great education for the investment of their time -- and the time is something they would need to invest even at a conventional school.

And then they can even go on to study at MIT, again entirely for free.

Most of them probably don't even know that things like these exist, but if they did know, any of them serious about getting an education could get a very good one without waiting for the government to come and spoon-feed it to them.

And for that matter, so could grossly under-achieving blacks in America's inner cities, as well as kids at the many other government schools all over the USA that are seeing performance continue to slide year after year.

Ironically, by providing seriously substandard education at an exceedingly high price, America's government schools are all too often contributing to the perpetuation of poverty and disempowerment rather than their elimination.

I agree with Keely Emerine-Mix that education is crucial to overcoming poverty. Although schools definitely have their place and attending a good school can be a wonderful experience, we don't need the government to make education happen. We don't even need a school!* There are so many things that can be done right now toward achieving genuine solutions to society's problems that don't require government involvement at all. These are things that we should be actively encouraging.

(*UPDATE: There is one thing for which a government school is still indispensable: teaching children to worship the State as their savior.)

South Africa's online population is still not high -- less than 11% of the population as of 2008, although that is apparently expected to rapidly increase. However, even at current levels of Internet access, it might be possible to make extensive and effective use of the Internet to help kids who want an education obtain a very good one.

Back in 2005 there was a push to develop cheap computers for developing regions, and this tells me some progress is being made (the incidental vulnerability to cybercriminals notwithstanding). So the educational future for these people does not have to be bleak -- if they find solutions that they can implement largely on their own, without requiring government assistance.

Education is largely a process of self-study anyway, even if you attend elite schools built around small classes, such as Exeter or Harvard.