Government urges tech sector to help revolutionise UK schooling

Education Secretary Damian Hinds has urged the tech sector to innovate for the education sector, asking them to introduce "state-of-the-art technology" including robotics and AI to schools, colleges and universities.

He said at the World Education Forum he wants all tech players, from the small Silicon Valley startups up to the likes of Apple and Microsoft to contribute more to help educators and students learn through technology. This could mean offering better education tools or innovative teaching practices to make it easier for educators to teach children and young adults on a day-to-day basis.

"Schools, colleges and universities have the power to choose the tech tools which are best for them and their budgets," Hinds said. "But they cannot do this alone. It's only by forging a strong partnership between government, technology innovators and the education sector that there will be sustainable, focused solutions which will ultimately support and inspire the learners of today and tomorrow."

He highlighted five key areas that the tech industry must address, including improving teaching practices, assessment processes, making teacher training more effective, transforming admin processes to make it less of a burden for teachers and offering lifelong learning support to those who are no longer in active education.

Hinds explained that by addressing these key points, teachers will be able to concentrate on teaching children rather than all the other tasks that take them away from the classroom and working longer hours than they have originally been recruited to do.

"I've been fortunate enough to see technology being used in revolutionary ways," Hinds said. "Students are able to explore the rainforest, steer virtual ships or programme robots from their classroom, while teachers are able to access training, share best practice with colleagues and update parents on a pupil's progress without being taken away from their main focus teaching."

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