MARKET REPORT Education
“Developing a disruptive strategy for an educational establishment starts with making the innovation relevant
to where they are on their journey right now and where they want, and need, to get to.”
Susie Wardell, Director, Evoke Telecom Services
Vertical Feature: Education
The education sector, like many others, was having a bit of a technical revolution before the world was turned
upside down by COVID-19. In this feature Comms Business asks the market how the sector is likely to change
after a period of total reliance on technology to deliver education to children throughout the UK
Comms Business doesn’t
hand out medals very
often, if we did one would
be given to every teacher
up and down the country. As a
parent that is currently ghting
an 8-year-old on a daily basis
just to get her to concentrate
on a lesson timetable I bow
to all teachers that willingly
enter the profession. Distance
Learning during COVID-19
really is about as much fun as
getting colonic in a sandstorm.
However, through the tears and
arguments I have seen ashes
of what is to come, and how
that might impact the future
generation of people entering the
workforce. Why is that exciting
I hear you ask? It’s exciting
because of the ways many of our
children are using technology.
e cloud communications
industry has been clawing at
the old traditional ways of
doing things for well over a
decade. ere was some serious
momentum being built too.
COVID-19 has pressed fast
forward, some say the crisis will
accelerate the market by about
ves years. While this estimate
is up for debate one thing is
for certain. Huge numbers
of children throughout the
developed world are using the
conferencing and collaboration
technology available to them
(much of it for free) and this
could have a far bigger impact
than anyone is currently
considering.
I asked the market if the
current challenges were uniform
across the education sector.
Susie Wardell, Director, Evoke
Telecom Services, commented
“ere are dierent challenges
for the Independent sector and
the State sector. Independent
schools have typically embraced
newer technologies from a
telephony and IT perspective
but are still slow to adopt more
immersive collaboration tools.
ey are struggling with loss of
revenue from parents that can’t
pay or because of a reduction in
student intake from overseas.
is puts greater pressure on the
Independent sector to justify
their fees for the time children
are away from the classroom and
ensure the technology they have
deployed is sucient to deliver
the high levels of quality the
students/parents expect.
State schools are mixed in
terms of technology adoption,
but many have outdated systems
and technologies and signicant
budget constraints with high
demand to deliver learning
technologies and eective remote
communications strategies.
Government has donated
200,000 laptops, but do the
children have all the equipment
they need to be educated from
home?
For both the Independent
and State sectors, safeguarding
children makes security
paramount and it can be a
challenge to move from a
security strategy on the campus
to security o the campus for
the short term due to remote
schooling. Other challenges
include being able to provide
immersive and relevant content
to ensure children can stay on
track, no matter what stage of
their education journey, and
making the education journey
relevant and suitable for each
individual child. Also, how to
be aware if some children are
struggling with completing
work and keeping an eye on
health and wellbeing of students
including promoting positive
mental health and ways to
© peampath-stock.adobe.com
36 | Comms Business Magazine | June 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk