Tablet adoption continues to rise in schools

Tablet adoption continues to rise in schools, new research from the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) has revealed.

The annual 'Tablets and connectivity' survey of 636 UK schools (334 primary, 302 secondary), conducted in May 2014, provides analysis into the current adoption of tablet PCs and apps in schools and gives insight into their future use.

When last year's respondents were asked to look ahead two years to 2015, they predicted that 24 percent of classroom computers would be tablets. In contrast, when this year's respondents looked forward two years to 2016, they suggested that 37 per cent of hardware would be tablets. This increased further to 56 per cent by 2020.

This projected total would provide a pupil-to-tablet ratio of 11.4 in primary schools and 6.4 in secondary schools by 2016, compared to last year's research projecting an average of 14 pupils to one tablet across primary and secondary schools by 2015.

When looking at this growth rate it is also interesting to consider the factors that are impacting the adoption of tablets in the classroom.

A highly significant 90 per cent of surveyed schools gave funding and budget allocation as the main barrier to adoption of tablets. Other reasons that were considered to be a significant or highly significant barrier to adoption include the management and security of the technology (85 per cent), training and support (83 per cent) and the availability of Wi-Fi connectivity (77 per cent).

Caroline Wright, director, BESA said; "It is heartening that schools continue to invest in this mobile technology to put the power of learning back into students' hands. However schools must continue to collaborate and share best practice use of tablets and apps if the technology's adoption is to continue to contribute positively to educational standards."