The education sector has faced a difficult time of late. Prior to the pandemic, schools were already under pressure for budgetary reasons. According to Education Business, 98% of headteachers said their school or college would have to make financial savings either in the current academic year 2022/23 or future years, or both, compared to last year, as a result of cost pressures.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption that it wrought on education delivery has only served to increase the headwinds on the sector. The ability for schools to provide learning through digital means has been tested to the full, and the increased workload and burden on teachers has led to even more leaving the profession, or considering doing so.
There is much that technology can do to assist students, teachers and school management alike in making education delivery easier and more cost-effective. While tech might not be able to solve every problem the sector faces, it can help address these three in particular:
Affordability
The issue: as mentioned above, schools are finding it increasingly difficult to afford all the IT equipment they need, such as laptops and tablets for pupils, and other associated equipment. The reasons for this are many: a growing population that is increasing the number of children attending schools; a lack of funding from the government; the need to replace equipment that becomes older and worn out; and the need to refresh tech so that students can take advantage of the latest and most relevant innovations.
The solution: there are a number of financially flexible options that schools can explore to relieve the budgetary pressure on procuring IT. One is a combination of buying in bulk, taking advantage of special education pricing and using a flexible payment plan: schools can get all the discount of ordering in larger volumes, without having to commit to major expenditure up front as they can schedule payments across a longer period instead. Another is to explore upgrade solutions with an IT provider, which can give existing products a new lease of life for lower cost than buying a replacement item.
Learning experience
The issue: using technology is now part and parcel of everyday school life, from children in the first years of primary school all the way through to university. However, for this to work at its fullest potential, students need to be able to use tablets and other devices without distraction or difficulty. In many cases, devices aren’t equipped with the right software and solutions to keep students focused and ensure students get the right experiences.
The solution: as the right hardware is pointless without the right software, devices should come pre-installed with all the relevant applications they need. The Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP), Microsoft’s Autopilot and similar solutions ensure not only that students can access the right applications, but also that they can’t use the devices to stray into other areas that are either distracting or aren’t relevant to their studies. These solutions also make it easier for teachers to collect and review student work straight after a new tech deployment.
Flexibility
The issue: the pandemic has highlighted how important flexibility can be in almost all industries, and education is certainly no exception to this. Technology was vital in ensuring education could continue during long periods of time when schools were closed and pupils had to learn from home. Looking forward, this flexibility is also important for helping schools adapt to other situations that may arise in the future, such as classes moving from one environment to another.
The solution: cloud-based services that can manage and host all pupils’ work in one accessible place is the key to making flexible education a reality. Work can be saved into the cloud for review and assessment by teachers, who can then easily track progression over time, and pupils are therefore able to seamlessly move to work across many different devices in different places. This also makes it far easier for teachers to manage large workloads, and keep things organised in one place.
How Ingram Micro can help
When you partner with Ingram Micro, you get access to all the hardware, software and support to exploit all the potential of flexible, digitally-driven education delivery. We can help you:
- Procure fit-for-purpose tablets, laptops and other devices with cost-effective and flexible payment plans
- Deliver devices with pre-installed software that connects the right pupils to the right applications straight from deployment
- Provide cloud services that enable clear lines of communications between pupils, work and teachers, wherever and whenever learning is taking place
To find out more on how we can help schools and education bodies like yours, explore our solutions and services in more detail here.