Two new chapters of the State of Technology in Education Report 2019/20 have been published providing an overview of educator opinions on ‘Staff Training’ and ‘Budgets’. Findings have suggested budgets are tighter now than at any period over the past four years, and staff training is falling in terms of priorities.
The State of Technology in Education report, pioneered by Promethean, has been plotting real trends in the education sector over the past four years. Surveying over 2,000 teachers, school leaders and ICT managers in the UK and Ireland, the report is providing a useful insight into the challenges and successes educators are experiencing.
- 72 percent of school leaders say budgets will have the biggest impact on student education in the year ahead.
- Compared to last year, almost five times as many school leaders say operations and maintenance will be the top spending priority after salaries (11 percent in 2018/19 up to 49 percent this year).
- Additional learning support will see a significant increase in priority, rising from 5 percent in 2018/19 up to 30 percent in 2019/20).
- Technology spend rises to fourth place in budget priorities – 16 percent of school leaders say they will spend most of their budget on technology in the coming year (compared to 4 percent in 2018/19).
- 46 percent of respondents believe too little is spent on tech – the highest level in the four year period.
- The positioning of teacher training in terms of priorities has fallen to less than half of what it was last year, from 31 percent to just 13 percent.
- 49 percent of school leaders think funding for training is at the right level, compared to 20 percent of teachers.
- Only 17 percent of teachers believe they receive adequate edtech training and support, a substantial drop from 55 percent in 2016/17.
- Just 10 percent of teachers said training should be a key priority, compared to 22 percent of senior leaders and 20 percent of ICT managers.
- Respondents cite ‘budgetary issues/ other priorities’ (58 percent) and ‘no time to deliver’ (25 percent) as the main reasons more training is not provided in their schools, perhaps explaining why teachers do not see training as a key priority.
To see the first four chapters on ‘Schools’ Strategic Visions’, ‘Workload and Wellbeing’, ‘Budgets’ and ‘Staff Training’ in full, view the State of Technology in Education Report 2018/19 online now. The final chapters on ‘Schools’ use of Tech’ and ‘The Future of Tech in Education’ will be published later in the month.