The headline on the local paper this morning announced £1m cuts to schools’ technology budgets. Can’t we have a different word of the day? Education, education, education has turned into cuts, cuts, cuts – tut, tut, tut!
I’m passionate about state education because it’s the only way I got to where I am today. A council-house kid getting a fantastic education from the local comprehensive followed by a full grant to go to university. Now running my own business and paying back in taxes and a few voluntary talks to inspire Year 9s to aim high and be enterprising.
One of the first things the new government did was to abolish Becta – the old government’s agency for technology in education. Ideal did a lot of work with Becta helping them communicate the benefits of technology in education. What I learned and wrote about really inspired me.
Youngsters from all sorts of backgrounds really benefiting from computers, interactive whiteboards, home broadband to keep in touch with school teachers and friends.
Quiet, shy kids (or those with English as a Second Language) who never speak in class suddenly finding their voice on a school blog or sending notes to the teacher. Every member of the class being encouraged to come to the whiteboard while getting support from their peers.
Kids who were excluded from school finding a way back in – catching up via computer at the community centre so they weren’t a disruption when they tried to get off the streets and reintegrate with school.
Young people with autism being able to take their laptop to a quieter room to continue the online task when being in class gets too much for them.
Parents having access to school portals to see what their children are learning in school and getting the tools to help them find safe and secure sites on the internet to boost their studies in subjects beyond a parent's grasp.
For me, as a linguist I’d have loved the opportunities technology brings for modern foreign languages – being able to connect and converse with peers in another country.
But this isn’t the way they teach in private schools, where technology takes a back seat to traditional methods so it’s hardly surprising the coalition government are cutting back on technology. It’s not something they are used to, understand or see the need for. It’s not something you need to produce an elite ruling class. Besides, if you want technology mummy and daddy will provide.
I find it worrying that Britain is taking this backward step on technology in education. This is the future and children were flying with it. The local paper said the cuts were because of the transfer of funds for the new academies. Great that high-flying schools can run their own budgets, but what about the poorer schools in the poorer areas? The type of place where I went to school? I succeeded because of the opportunities I was given. I feel very sad that these opportunities for learning with technology are going to be taken away from the children who benefit most from them.
Why the title of my blog? As a linguist and environmentalist I used to plaster my student walls with posters from the German Greens. Atomkraft - nein Danke (nuclear power – no thanks). But don’t get me started on nuclear today (I thought I voted for Clegg to scrap Trident?!)
Debbie Griffiths www.idealCSR.co.uk
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