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Did she have any particular knowledge about those countries and their education systems? You might want to invite her to give you more information.

Of course, maybe she's just knee-jerking against something. I don't know what though.

Many countries charge for education. This means that girls especially miss out on education.

You do need to be careful when money is involved. Unfortunately corruption is rife. There are many "libraries" that are unsafe, and filled with old, mouldering books. People send "recycled" PCs abroad, but the usable machines are filtered out and ewaste is illegally dumped. And as soon as money is involved there are crooks trying to get it. (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/the...)

So, in general it's better to find an existing NGO working in the country and area you're interested in and see what they need. Sometimes that's money, but sometimes it's more awareness, or people to volunteer a few hours for better web tech, or other stuff.

Your last question presents a dichotomy, but you don't need to do either / or. You could do both, acknowledging it's sub-optimal but pretty good in a lousy situation.

I'll edit in some links that may be interesting.

IRIN has some great photos of children and school. (http://www.irinnews.org/Photo/Result.aspx?ThemeID=EDU)

Here are children BREAKING ROCKS TO PAY FOR SCHOOL (http://www.irinnews.org/photo/Slideshow/83/Children-break-ro...)

I particularly like this one, of a child walking near (through?) minefield to get to school. (http://www.irinnews.org/Photo/Details/201104041243130656/A-c...)

And this one of a girl doing her schoolwork by lamp light, in Kandahar. (http://www.irinnews.org/Photo/Details/201102171228410821/A-g...)