VIEWS & OPINION


VIEWS & OPINIO N


Escaping the shackles:What canwe learn fro


Policy Institute findings? Comment by ABHI ARYA, President of


RY TeacherV rVision (FEN Learning)


When the Education Policy Institute published its findings last month, I wasn’t surprised to hear that teachers are now working up to 60 hour weeks on a regular basis. Education remains one of the only industries that has failed to come out of centuries-old shackles and embrace digital. The main culprit for this is a lack of teacher training and, more importantly, a lack of funding and time to support that training. While we in the edtech industry keep talking about Education 2.0 and concepts


such as flipped classrooms, more teacher-student collaboration and project- based learning, teachers are not fully equipped to take on the challenge that these tools and techniques provide; especially when it comes to online tools. When we look around, digital enhancements have made it deep in every industry – automobile, health, telecom, retail – and revolutionized each of them. Yet, the £4 trillion education industry has been slow on the uptake for many reasons, including the high cost of implementing e coupled with tight budgets and structural resistance of a What’s clear is that teachers need more support from


the decision makers traditional system. dtech initiatives,


to reduce those exhaustive hours, which threaten to turn potential new teachers off a rewarding and socially necessary career path. I believe there are four ways we can look to address this :


Reformatting education 1.0 to education 2.0: Reformatting education 1.0 to education 2.0:


Teachers themselves are trying to keep up with current technology, but the support systems available to them such as IT helpdesks and product help are too weak to e p speed up the learning curve.We need to move away from teaching in a manufacturing era to teaching in a digital services era.


h l Relevant teaching: Relevant teaching:


Many jobs that exist today, such as social media manager, did not exist 10 years ago and we have no idea of the jobs that will exist in the future. As educators, we need to prepare kids for the future by equipping them with 21st century skills such as collaboration, virtual team work and communication.Most importantly, we need to equip teachers with the teaching tools to deliver those skills.


Make teaching sexy again: Make teaching sexy again:


While current teachers are passionate about education, we need to reinstate teaching as a lucrative and attractive career choice for generation Z and beyond. Statistics such as those revealed by the Education Policy Institute aren’t productive in inspiring a new generation of educators.We need to rebrand teaching as a job of the future, creating deep links with teaching as relevant and cool, while keeping teachers at the cutting edge of tools and technology .


Empower and equip teachers: Empower and equip teachers:


Decision makers, whether they be headmasters or policy makers, must provide continuous access to resources and tools that help teachers deliver better lessons. Not just preparing them to teach, but giving them the tools that support personalized lessons, customized assessment, and content creation.We must also deliver the resources such as digital lesson plans, worksheets, and videos that engage students and give teachers their free time back.


When it comes to modern education, just the right change can create an environment in which teaching is not taxing and all consuming, but rewarding and satisfying – for all stakeholders. And everyone from policy makers to school principals need to unite to make it happen.


1 4 www .education-today.co.uk.co.uk www romEducation


Closing the literacy and numeracy gap


Comment by MARTIN BROWNE, Tutor Doctor


Comment byMART RTIN BROWNE, Tutor Docto r


Recent research by the charity National Numeracy suggested that poor numeracy is costing the UK around £20billion a year. Other research by KPMG has suggested a lower figure of £2.4billion, but all agree that low educational attainment has a direct impact on economic growth. The problem of low educational attainment, particularly numeracer and literacy, is most keenly felt among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Schools across the UK are witnessing a widening gap in educational attainment between children from poorer backgrounds and their wealthier peers. Research By the Read On Get On campaign in Scotland, has suggested that as many as one in five children growing up in poverty is unable to read well by the time they finish primary school and these children are twice as likely to experience difficulties in language development before they start school. The impact of this is hard to measure, but much of the focus is on what this means for our productivity and economic outlook. But what about the impact on our children and how do we finally tackle this issue?


Poor numeracy and literacy can have a devastating effect on a child’s life, particularly children from disadvantaged communities. One in four children in the UK grows up in poverty, and for these children, the impact of poor educational attainment on their chances of education and life success is profound. People with poor numeracy for example, are more than twice as likely to be unemployed and recent data from the OECD shows a direct correlation between wage distribution and numeracy.


Poor numeracy and literacy can also have a damaging effect on a child’s confidence and self-esteem, resulting in high exclusion rates at school, truancy, low grades and can even lead to emotional and behavioural difficulties. Research from a review of adult up-skilling in numeracy by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has demonstrated that improving numeracy directly contributes to growth in personal and social confidence as well as reducing depression.


Poor numeracy and literacy can have a devastating effect on a child’s life, particularly children from disadvantaged communities. One in four children in the UK grows up in poverty, and for these children, the impact of poor educational attainment on their chances of education and life success is profound. People with poor numeracy for example, are more than twice as likely to be unemployed and recent data from the OECD shows a direct correlation between wage distribution and numeracy. Poor numeracy and literacy can also have a damaging effect on a child’s confidence and self-esteem, resulting in high exclusion rates at school, truancy, low grades and can even lead to emotional and behavioural difficulties. Research from a review of adult up-skilling in numeracy by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has demonstrated that improving numeracy directly contributes to growth in personal and social confidence as well as reducing depression.


Low numeracy and literacy rates within poorer areas often stems from social and environmental factors - dysfunctional parental support, the economic and psychological pressures of poverty, high levels of unemployment, drug abuse - which can lead t o behavioural issues and low self-esteem. Schools generally do not have the resources or skill sets to tackle these issues or the capacity to provide the one on one support the chil them. Building confidence is one of the ke educational attainment and this requires a


high level of mentoring y routes to improving d needs to overcome


in an environment and at a pace that is suitable to the child’s needs.


a ‘one size fits all’ framework which works wonderfully well when the playing field is level, but children with more challenging need s require a different kind of space for development. This will require greater investment from the government and schools, as well as a seismic cultural shift in teaching practices across the educational system. It may also require closer partnerships between the private tutoring sector and schools, charities or community groups, to provide additional support, skills and resources.


To break the cycle, we must invest in more one on one support for these children and create an educational system that has the flexibility to adapt to personal learning styles. School syllabuses are a ‘one size fits all’ framework which works wonderfully well when the playing field is level, but children with more challenging needs require a different kind of space for development. This will require greater investment from the government and schools, as well as a seismic cultural shift in teaching practices across the educational system. It may also require closer partnerships between the private tutoring sector and schools, charities or community groups, to provide additional support, skills and resources.


To break the cycle, we must invest in more one on one support for these children and create an education flexibility to adapt to personal learning styl


es. School syllabuses are al system that has the


Novembe r 2016 2016


Low numeracy and literacy rates within poorer areas often stems from social and environmental factors - dysfunctional parental support, the economic and psychological pressures of poverty, high levels of unemployment, drug abuse - which can lead to behavioural issues and low self-esteem. Schools generally do not have the resources or skill sets to tackle these issues or the capacity to provide the one on one support the child needs to overcome them. Building confidence is one of the key routes to improving educational attainment and this requires a high level of mentoring in an environment and at a pace that is suitable to the child’s needs.


Recent research by the charity National Numeracy suggested that poor numeracy is costing the UK around £20billion a year. Other research by KPMG has suggested a lower figure of £2.4billion, but all agree that low educational attainment has a direct impact on economic growth. The problem of low educational attainment, particularly numeracer and literacy, is most keenly felt among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Schools across the UK are witnessing a widening gap in educational attainment between children from poorer backgrounds and their wealthier peers. Research By the Read On Get On campaign in Scotland, has suggested that as many as one in five children growing up in poverty is unable to read well by the time they finish primary school and these children are twice as likely to experience difficulties in language development before they start school. The impact of this is hard to measure, but much of the focus is on what this means for our productivity and economic outlook. But what about the impact on our children and how do we finally tackle this issue?


Closing the literacy and numeracy gap


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