Can Kids Teach Themselves?

After watching this video, Sugata Mitra proposed a novel approach to bettering education for all economic classes with Educational Technology. I strongly agree with the idea that advances in technology should start at the bottom, instead of trickling their way from the top (Elite) to the bottom (Poor). Those in a good financial position normally already have the older version of the same technology, and therefore constant innovation only propels the upperclass market. The problem with Indian society is the social structure has a huge poor population, no middle class, and a small wealthy population. Because of this many children are forced to work from an early age, normally around 8; this leaves little to no time to attend school and get an education. Although Indian government has tried to establish laws preventing child labor, they cannot control the millions that live in these conditions and need the support of all the income they can get. By inserting a computer into a wall in a rural town in India, he establishs his premise that primary education can happen on its own and it doesn't have to be imposed; it could be self-organized and attain an educational objective. The impacts of his theory have both immediate and long term effects, like improvements on testing, access to information, better educated population, which leads to more productivity, and a potential reduction of violence in slums. Another reason why this could be extremely beneficial to the country as a whole is because Mr. Mitra proposed to use computers manufactured by NIIT. This company is based in India, and by purchasing these computers they would be stimulating Indian economy. This obviously would help local businesses based in India, rather than if Mitra would bring Apple computers, a company based in California. Now, although this approach seems faultless considering you would be giving valuable opportunities to children in impoverished areas, there are some potential problems in my opinion.


Some of the problems that I see with Mr. Mitra's theory of reviving education is the main thought that children need guidance by adults, more specifically teachers, and that a teacher work can't be fully replaced by a machine. There are also many holes in the experiment: it provides limited statistics, covers younger age groups, data is only gathered in India, and the theory could turn from education to entertainment. There are also limited applicable conditions that Mr. Mitra establishes, like an unstructured group environment, no feasible way of incorporating it into today's American school system, and the required funds. Who will fund money to purchase computers? Who will put in wireless internet? Who will update and cover maintenance care? Also what happens to the unmotivated students in the village that aren't interested in the computer? How will Indian government have control over this education system? Also, how are the families who rely on more than 2 incomes to sustain them, supposed to survive?