According to Melissa Benn, in her book ‘Inadequate’ Priya Lakhani is rightly criticizing various shortcomings of the British educational system. Benn highlights the validity of Lakhani’s points, especially when considering that, before the pandemic, every year a third of UK students failed to achieve a grade 4, which is the minimum passing grade for English and Math GCSEs. These groups of students have come to be known as ‘the forgotten third’ , a term that Geoff Barton uses to describe this group of students’ situation: “It’s a terrible indictment of a nation aspiring to a world-class education system that we should find this level of collateral damage acceptable… Because it is no accident that about one-third of students end up in this situation each year. It is a result of the use of ‘comparable outcomes,’ whereby the distribution of GCSE grades is determined largely by how similar cohorts have performed in the past” (Barton 2019).
Moreover, Lakhani’s criticism of a bloated curriculum is well-founded, as in my opinion, it fails to adequately prepare students for the future. This becomes evident when students are required to narrow their focus to just three subjects during the final two years of secondary school and then invest three years pursuing a degree that may not provide a return on their investment. If we look at the statistics gathered by the UK government, the future looks grim: “The forecast average debt among the cohort of borrowers who started in 2022/23 is £45,600…The Government expects that around 27% full- time undergraduates starting in 2022/23 would repay in full… [and] after the 2022 reform this would increase to 61% among new students” (Bolton 2023).
The situation in the USA is quite similar, the average student debt is just over US$37,000. These numbers align with what Dr. Wingard highlights in his book ‘The College Devaluation Crisis’, which describes the impending collapse of the university system in the United States due to crippling levels of student debt. During the Obama administration, the U.S. government decided to tackle this problem and started collecting data to determine whether university degrees from certain colleges justified the cost. The information collected led to the creation of the College Scorecard, which was further modified by the inclusion of ‘the gainful employment regulation’ in 2015, aiming to provide students with valuable insights into the potential outcomes of their educational investments (Delisle 2022).
It is easy to agree with Lakhani and Dr. Wingard’s point of view. The educational system must change and evolve to provide students with enough tools to face adulthood. If we consider the words of the historian Yuval Noah Harari about the next generation of students: “I think the most important thing is to invest in emotional intelligence and mental balance, because the hardest challenges will be psychological…The most important investment that people can make is not to learn a particular skill… No, the most important investment is really in building this more flexible mind or personality” (Harari 2018). Harari is not wrong, as the World Economic Forum predicts that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years, and six in ten workers will need some form of future training. With all this information as a backdrop, EdTech companies may offer some alternatives. As Euan Blair asserts, having a university degree no longer guarantees social mobility, which is why it’s important to provide students with other options. After reading the Intel report ‘Preparing to teach in the 4th Revolution’, it is impossible not to agree with the need to prepare students for this new era. However, it is crucial to determine whether education is a commodity or a right guaranteed by the state, as this is the primary risk we face when allowing these EdTech companies to operate with profitability as their sole focus.
Chile is a significant example of a country with a military government that aimed to reduce state expenditure and promote the neoliberal agenda within the education system. As a consequence, the state began reducing its investment in public universities, leading students from more privileged backgrounds to enroll in private universities that offer better facilities and better paid teachers. Due to the lack of regulation, Chile is now grappling with an oversaturation of professionals and a growing number of students unable to pay back their university debts. This two-tiered system poses a challenge for the country.
It is still early to analyze the real impact of Edtech companies in the educational system and, since there is no official data regarding the quality of their graduates, it is very challenging to form concrete arguments for criticism. I believe that companies like Coursera or Google Career Certificates primarily offer courses for people who already have degrees, so I do not see how they can claim to be narrowing the social gap. It appears to me that Bloom Institute of Technology is a direct competitor to traditional higher education institutions.
Having said that, based on my own experience as a teacher, apps like Blooket, Edpuzzle, or Flip have made teaching easier and more enjoyable. I know that my students love using this software, which aids their learning. Quizlet and Duolingo are useful for revision, but they are not as effective when used for independent study since they do not offer active recall or creative thinking. These apps do not provide the same experience that we, as teachers, can offer students, nor do they help improve their social skills or lower their anxiety. From an optimistic perspective, I do believe that this type of technology can make teaching less challenging, and it can reduce the time spent in preparing teaching material. However, if universities do not receive the right investment, increasing numbers of people will be drawn to this courses that offer good value for money, while fewer will spend four years studying for a career, such as teaching, at an institution that cannot compete with the more lucrative careers that these EdTech companies offer.
Bibliography
Barton, Geoff. 2019. “Why Teachers Need to Speak Up for ‘The Forgotten Third’.” Tes Magazine.
Bolton, Paul. 2023. “Student Loan Statistics.” House of Commons Library,
Delisle, Jason D. 2022. “Student Outcomes and Earnings in Higher Education.” American Enterprise Institute.
Espinoza, Oscar. 2017. “Privatización de la Educación Superior en Chile.” Eccos Revista Científica.
Cartoon ©Glasbergen, used with special permission from www.glasbergen.com
Leave a Reply