The EdTech report 2019/2020

The evolution of educational technology has been remarkable. Interactive whiteboards hang in place of chalkboards, students use iPads in place of textbooks and lots of schools are investing in emerging technologies such as virtual reality. More so than ever, leading tech companies are working with schools and colleges to cut teacher workload, support professional development and improve student outcomes.

But is EdTech set to be the new era of education?

We’ve surveyed teachers across the UK to get their views on educational technology, its impact on everyday learning and whether their schools are investing enough. We have also analysed Crunchbase data to reveal global EdTech trends revealing how much money is being invested in the industry as a whole.

Although there are plans for a £10 million UK government strategy for EdTech in schools, there is still a lack of understanding when it comes to educational technology amongst teachers. According to our survey, although half of teachers (51%) said they know what EdTech is, 36% said they have heard of it but don’t know what it is, and alarmingly more than 1 in 10 (14%) have never even heard of EdTech.

Despite advances in educational technology in schools, our research shows that many teachers are struggling to adapt to this new way of learning because of a lack of training, meaning schools are at risk of investing thousands of pounds in EdTech apparatus that fail to deliver. This lack of teacher training is most evident at Academy schools, where 3 in 5 teachers (60%) said they don’t think there is enough training available when it comes to technology. This was a similar scenario for teachers at public schools, with over half (54%) saying they don’t believe there is enough training available.

According to reports, the UK EdTech sector is expected to reach £3.4 billion by 2021. Despite this, our findings show that more needs to be done to ensure UK schools and colleges are getting enough access to educational technology. This is particularly evident in Northern Ireland, where 3 in 4 teachers said the children they teach don’t have enough access to educational technology. Teachers in the North East, West Midlands, Greater London, North West and Wales also feel the same, where at least half of all teachers from these areas said that the children they teach do not have enough access to educational technology.

A £4.6 million funding programme has been unveiled by the Department for Education (DfE) to test EdTech in classrooms in the hope that this will kick start innovation and de-risk future investment by technology suppliers, as well as schools. This will be encouraging news for teachers across the UK as our survey found that at least half of all teachers from every type of school, whether public, academy, private or specialist, agreed that there is not enough funding for EdTech at their school. What's more, nearly half of all teachers said that over the past few years, funding and resources for educational technology has been cut at their school.

Funding setbacks have resulted in teachers using their own money to buy school supplies. Our survey found that 37% of teachers have previously purchased tech supplies for their students and have, on average, spent over £40 doing so. But in which subjects are teachers spending the most on tech?

Although classrooms were once dominated by blackboards and textbooks, our survey findings show that there has been a steady rise in the use of technology over the years, with almost 4 in 5 teachers (79%) now using it in almost every lesson. In fact, regular use of technology in the classroom has more than tripled compared to 10 years ago, when only 1 in 5 teachers were regularly using tech to teach.

Despite the lack of funding for EdTech, teachers in our survey believed that their school had still received new or significantly improved versions of a variety of tech over the past three years, with more than half of all teachers citing improved learning apps (56%) and desktop computers (54%) in the classroom.

With a predicted market worth close to $252 billion, EdTech startups are on the rise all over the world. Much like with many other sectors, the overwhelming majority of EdTech enterprises are located in the United States, which accounts for 1,385 or 43% of all EdTech company headquarters. The country’s population size, large economy, and tech and innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley are likely to contribute to its success. The remaining countries with the most EdTech startups include India (327), Brazil (275) and the United Kingdom (245) with China (101) wrapping up the top 5 list.

Looking at the relative success rates of the world’s EdTech companies in securing funding, it’s countries such as Sweden, China, and Italy that come to the front of the fold with over half of their EdTech startups successfully funded.

Roughly one-third (31%) of EdTech companies have attracted VC funding, with 1,019 enterprises in the industry attracting a total of $14 billion. While most of the VC funding has gone to companies based in the United States, from the point of view of VC funding per EdTech company, a different group of countries emerge at the top including the likes of China, Luxembourg and India.

Even though companies in the top 20 most funded are largely US-based, of the three EdTech startups with the highest amount of capital raised, one is based in India (BYJU’s with $969m in funding) and two in China (Yuanfundao with $544m and Zhangmen with $499m).

According to Crunchbase, there have been almost 200 acquisitions in the EdTech space since 2003. Acquisitions have been on a steady rise since the early 2010s, with 37 acquisitions in 2018. The most notable acquisition in the space was LinkedIn’s $1.5 billion purchase of Lynda - a provider of online video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills - in 2015.

Survey research was conducted by Censuswide on behalf of RS Components. 250 primary and secondary school teachers in the UK were surveyed between 11.11.2019 - 18.11.2019. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society. All survey panelists are double opted in (with an opt-in and validation process) in line with MRS and ESOMAR standards. Global industry EdTech data was gathered from Crunchbase in November 2019. Over 3,250 companies listed under the category ‘EdTech’ were analysed.

• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/edtech-strategy-marks-new-era-for-schools
• https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/connecting-schools-technology/
• https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/4-6-million-programme-to-test-edtech-in-classrooms/
• https://www.financedigest.com/global-report-predicts-edtech-spend-to-reach-252bn-by-2020.html

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