Spend school budgets on teachers, not technology
Priorities should be on training, salaries and recruitment
DUBAI // Stretched school budgets should be spent on recruitment, training and better salaries for teachers rather than bringing “wasteful and unnecessary” technology into classrooms, an education forum has heard.
The effect of technology has been overstated and is of little value if the basic infrastructure of a school is not in place, delegates at the Global Education and Skills Forum at The Atlantis hotel were told yesterday.
“The question we have to ask ourselves is if investing in technology in the classroom is the right thing to do with our finite budgets, and I would say no,” said James Centenera, founder of the Tula after-school learning centres in the Philippines.
“Technology only works if other essentials are in place. When you have classrooms without creature comforts like heating or even enough teachers in most places around the world, then we have to shift our priorities.” The forum debated the idea that technology in the classroom is a waste of time and money. The topic was sparked by an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report that said technology did little to bridge the skills gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
According to Fortune magazine, global spending on technology in classes will surpass US$19 billion (Dh69.77bn) by 2019.
On average, India spends $243 per pupil per year. In the Philippines it is $176 and $91 in Ethiopia, Mr Centenera said.
“Teachers are some of the lowest- paid professionals in the world. In some places, they get below a country’s minimum wage.”
Only when technology is mature enough and there are more teachers and better curriculums should it play a more central role in learning, he said.
Antony Jenkins, board member of technology company Blockchain and former chief executive of Barclays, likened the issue to the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
He said tech companies constantly required funds to be spent on upgrades and in the end, there was little to show for it.
“The problem with technology in the classrooms at the moment is that they, more often than not, are there to make money for the technology companies,” Mr Jenkins said. “We should divert our resources to what matters most and that is trained teachers and more of them. You look at whiteboards, there is no need for them. Do they do anything differently to what a teacher with a blackboard and chalk couldn’t do?”
Munira Rajkotwalla, a pupil at Gems Wellington Academy, countered with her own positive experience of using technology in school. She is one of 50 pupils taking part in a blended learning scholarship programme where instruction is through online classes.
“This has made a huge difference to my learning. In a survey of students in my class and those using traditional means we were on average higher marks in our IB [International Baccalaureate],” she said, arguing that technology could make study time more efficient. “We asked them how many hours they studied outside of school per week and those using technology were on average doing 15 hours. Pupils working in traditional methods had 55 hours.” Her debating partner, Zak Khoury of Microsoft, UAE, said it was essential that children knew how to use technology.
“It’s not a case of either we have teachers or we have technology – we can have both.”
Global spending on technology in classes is expected to surpass US$19 billion by 2019