Technology in education is far from achieving meaningful strides in Europe. Due to no unicorns, EdTech is slowing down major sectors in terms of creativity and success.
Billions are transacting in the financial sector including dating sites and there are concerns why funds are not channeled to technology in education.
Higher education in Europe accommodates over 20-million students and questions are lingering over quality and its ability to cover the skills gap.
Investing in Technology in education for transformation
Education is paramount in the transformation of the digital world. According to HolonIQ, by 2020, spending on education reached $6tn globally and it’s about eight times the software industry.Nine percent downloads of apps are purely educational according to records from Statista.
Online education and gaming has developed to cater for challenges that traditional forms of education couldn’t.
Only about 15% of $16.3bn invested in technological advancements in education has been invested in fintech opportunities.
One major challenge in the European education sector is that the individual nation’s education sector is small and works quite differently from other countries.
Across Europe, different private and public systems offer different examinations.
Every European nation has its preferred model for studies, despite there being International Standard Classification of Education.
The United Kingdom has three boards of primary exams while Poland has one central system.
Therefore, a company would need to be legally authorized for about 40 times which is a stumbling block any meaningful impact.
According to a report from Promethean, 89.6% of instructors think that technology in education remains the best way to engage learners. However, there is still looming skepticism regarding implementation of new values.
A largely known white elephant is the use of white smart boards in the lecture halls. Tutors were not trained on how to use them and it resulted in major breakages and the initiative eloped.
Such unsupported innovations have led many investors to shy away from creativity in the education sector.
However, some initiatives like Duolingo are working. The app compliments curriculum offering and has now been adopted in over 300,000 schools worldwide.
Government support for technology in education
Government support for technology based education in the United Kingdom has been weak and lacks impetus. Governments need to institute many changes for it to jumpstart the sector.
Technology in Education is known to be a tough industry to invest in to achieve venture capital. On average it takes a year to introduce a new product to schools in comparison with three months while introducing business related software.
It takes huge investment from venture capital funds to convince educators that there are products in the market to be trusted.
Edtech needs support and huge investment as there is still a very huge gap to seize and improve.
Featured image credits: pixabay
