Opportunities for poor students... but needs work on our part.

My last post was about a teacher that couldn't teach - and couldn't even mark an exam properly.

You win some, you lose some. I had some good times, good experiences and good teachers at that school. I look at people in poor areas - Indonesia for example - and see the quality of education there and realize I was lucky in so many ways. But their luck can improve. Unlike any time in the past, it's possible to create resources for these people.

Their English textbooks suck. Actually, all of their textbooks sucked last time I looked, in 2000. And the teachers really have trouble teaching effectively. But we can help write new textbooks, using wiki technology to collaborate. Check Wikibooks and Wikiversity.

Wikibooks has a range of textbooks in development. English as an Additional Language - to be honest, it's not one of the better ones at this stage (the Indonesian and other language textbooks are more promising) except that it has some good links, so it's good for teachers. But it's an ideal place to develop material. Stories in simple English, ideal for learning and practice in reading, can be written or copied here by anyone, anytime, as long as there's no copyright violation. When the textbook - or reading practice book or whatever - is better developed, it can be printed off at the other end. It means that someone, say, with a small printing press in Indonesia (like the "RW" or neighbourhead head, where I lived in Surabaya, who had a printing business in his garage) can take the material, print it and sell it for a low price. And that is a much better option for schoolkids who currently can't afford the good textbooks.