Is Education in the UK drowning in technical debt?

Yes, it is.

Behind the classroom doors and learning platforms, UK schools are silently drowning in technical debt – and it’s costing more than just money.

Technical Debt refers to the cost of using outdated, poorly integrated tech solutions. If you look across schools, you can see this in infrastructure, software, systems and strategy – and this is ultimately slowing down innovation in the sector, increasing the cost and time required to support it.

For many reasons, schools continue to defer proper upgrades and are avoiding long term planning – which is consistently causing the technical debt to build. Once a backlog of debt occurs, it takes a lot of work, and money, to pay it off.

Where is the debt?

infrastructure is a big one, with schools not investing in their internal connectivity, meaning that switches and links are often running at slow speeds, wifi is not properly planned and is often not supporting the usage scenarios required. Added to this, internet connections continue to be below par (again based on the increased usage and adoption of cloud/SaaS solutions) and throughout all these, little thought is given to redundancy.

Systems and software continue to build the levels of debt, with schools often retaining older systems due to the perceived impact and cost of change – meaning new technologies are often not adopted. This also leads to, and is a result of a patchwork of software and systems being used across many different areas. Not least, the lack of adoption of a single platform such as Google or Microsoft leads to inefficient systems, and most importantly, that poor adoption.

Hybrid hell – too many schools are stuck in limbo between the cloud and on-premise technology, resulting in duplication of systems, costs and reduced impact. Without full utilisation of all elements of these systems – then schools are not getting value for money – but the elements that are not within the cloud platform, are often technical debt themselves, running from legacy systems.

Security and compliance – outdated systems, poor compliance and documentation as well as non existent plans leave schools at significant risk. Having to manage legacy systems, multiple platforms and a wide range of integrations and data travelling are huge issues for many.

Whilst this is a huge issue, it is also one of the biggest catalysts for change we are seeing, unfortunately, only after a cyber event.

Skills and strategy – if you take a read of a previous blog post – “Why the structure of IT Support in Education needs to change” I have highlighted how the role has significantly changed over the last decade, but the investment in skills and staffing haven’t matched this – yet the requirement for more strategic thinking and planning has. Without the strategy, and the technical knowledge – the debt can never be paid off.

What can we do about it?

There is no immediate fix, just like financial debt – it often takes a major event to make you realise you are in trouble. You can get by pay check to pay check, but that debt never gets cleared, and every time something goes wrong unexpectedly, you end up going further into debt. People don’t have savings these days – and schools absolutely have spent theirs.

However doing nothing, is not an option. It’s not just IT teams that are suffering and struggling to keep systems meeting ever changing needs.

Schools are missing out on significant financial savings, increased productivity, reduced workloads, reduction in security risks and most importantly – the positive impact that technology can play in delivering and supporting teaching and learning, and making it accessible to all to increase life chances.

The how, and what – is not that difficult. There is a clear way to move schools forward. Adoption of cloud platforms, to manage data, devices and security. Infrastructure that is able to handle the increased usage, the security and the redundancy that is required to power teaching and learning.

In fact, this is something I have seen first hand. The impact wholesale change can have in completely removing technical debt is great to be part of – with the work at a primary school in Manchester – who suffered a cyber attack, that was able to happen due to the school being laden with technical debt from years of poor investment and lack of strategy. An expectation that their systems would be resilient, because nothing had happened yet.

It’s a big ask of schools and trusts to take that leap, both financially and with the impact of change. But we need to provide the right environment to enable the opportunity and reassurance required to move forward, and help them out of their debt.