Here's an interesting educational development. A primary school in England is outsourcing it's maths teaching to India! The Times Educational Supplement reported that Year 6 pupils' understanding of maths has improved significantly since starting the online tutoring.
It's interesting that this is more cost-effective for the school at GBP12 per hour per student than having a teacher in the classroom. Not cheaper mind, but more cost-effective - meaning better results for lower input. The class teacher still supervises the sessions but each child gets a one-on-one with the same tutor in India who have been trained in the English maths curriculum.
I predict we will see more cross-border basic education services being offered online - especially from countries like India where UK outsourcing of customer service centres is well established and there is a mass of highly educated people who earn less than the averable UK school teacher.
It's happening in Africa too - at tertiary level. The Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning has just launched the Pan African e-Network tele-education project which will enable African students to study with Indian universities through video-conferencing (sounds a bit like the original plans of the African Virtual University).
Commonwealth of Learning is holding the Sixth Pan Commonwealth Forum in India in November - maybe I'll get the chance to explore this more when I go to India.
