Spanish report about Information Technologies in schools

The Spanish report about Information Technologies in schools was published last year by the Ministry of Education of Spain. The report exposes some statistics about Information Society in non-university schools (academic year 2012-2013) and shows very interesting figures which can help to establish the reason behind the slow speed in the implementation of digital classrooms and technologies in schools around Spain. Some of the conclusions that have been reached are:

• A third of schools and institutes in Spain have problems connecting to the Internet safely without sudden system or network crashes.
• Some teachers still have gaps in new technologies: they know how to use internet and the most usual tools but in many cases without having more than a basic level, which is not surprising if we consider that less than 20% received adequate training to adapt teaching methods to the digital age.
• The ‘School 2.0 Plan’ (plan which aimed to boost the transformation of traditional classrooms into digital classrooms for students aged 10-14 years) was discontinued at the beginning of the decade (2011-2012) as a result of the crisis and cutbacks in public administrations. Interrupting the plan has had two important consequences:
  1. It has not reached the minimum number of computers per student expected
  2. Many computers at schools and at homes are right now obsolete because they were expecting to accommodate the renovation under that 2.0 plan.

Once again, we can see how removing money from education brings negative effects on the whole society. We cannot but to quote Daniel Pennac, author of —among many other works— ‘Comme un roman’ (1993) and ‘Chagrin d’Ecole’ (2007):

If you think that culture is expensive, try ignorance. A medium and long term, save on education and culture is paid expensive. Conservative governments act as if the school were his worst enemy. They do not want history, philosophy, reason, secularism. The liberal political patronage wants 90% of students as consumers and the other 10% as managers. So that the social sciences are removed and everyone goes to study economics and marketing, and to consume.

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Sources:

• The complete report about Schools and Information Society (PDF, 6 pages, Spanish language)
• Information Society, Schools and PISA results (PDF, 66 pages, Spanish language)
• Interview with Daniel Pennac (elpais.com, Spanish Language)