Governments will have to spend millions to retrofit our schools, but should they?

The question I am asking myself as a parent today is this, “Is retrofitting our current school buildings going to significantly add educational value to the lives of our children?”

In a recent article, “Too Expensive to Re-Open Schools? Some Superintendents Say It Is“ published in Education Week, Kathy Granger the superintendent of the Mountain Empire Unified School District in San Diego County, California lamented that they are unsure of how to cover the costs the school will incur to open. She begins with $40,000 for plexiglass at the office counter and hand sanitizer through to an estimated $4.5 million for school buses and lunch services while physical distancing is in play.  

These are just the beginning of the costs schools could face. While office workers are demanding clean filtered air through HVAC systems, many schools still have open windows in summer and nothing in winter save the classroom door opening between classes. The cost to retrofit schools with safe air systems is staggering.  

While these numbers are inconceivable and will swallow school budgets, there is a duty of care and an expectation that any child be kept safe when entering schools.

My challenge is that none of this money will directly improve the learning pathway for children. This investment in safety and buildings does not focus on the need to transform our children's learning which many of us believe is an outdated and already under-resourced system.  

Teachers readily align with parents in wishing the system was better resourced and catered to the individual needs of each and every student. I know students join in the chorus of wanting more relevant learning experiences that speak to the challenges they will face both in the workplace and in their lives.  

For the most part - we are all in agreement that education hasn’t fundamentally changed in 200 years. Students sit for most of the day in class, taking instruction from a teacher at the front of a class. Mercifully we have found some creative ways to deliver learning experiences, but with the emphasis on gaining magical scores that unlock the entrance to a university, there can’t be much deviation unless we radically rethink education.

If today we were able to ask the students that are in our educational system if they want more money poured into classrooms or they want better ways to interact, learn and explore the possibilities that life offers I am confident we would have a unified voice encouraging us to look at radical transformation, however, this leaves the key issue of needing to keep students occupied.

The key reason that education can’t change is that we need our children looked-after so that we can engage in work activities to earn the money to pay for them to eat and provide a roof over their heads. So is the challenge we face is can we find a way to keep our children busy and engaged? I hope so because that would demand us to elevate the learning opportunities that students can engage in to be something they actively choose to do.

Imagine if your child wanted to learn. If the learning material provided delivered so many opportunities that it was an enjoyable experience. To compete with today’s media-rich world, it would need to be highly engaging and interactive, it would need a story blended into it and be compelling and purpose-focused.  

Within this space, there needs to be opportunities for encounter and engagement with their friends and classmates. There needs to be the opportunity for shared experiences through casual chatter about the events of the weekend and all this, for the moment needs to be delivered safely and affordably.

The purpose of this article is not to dream of the possibilities but rather to highlight the reality that we can do this today. We have all of the technology to deliver purpose-based simulations, we have masterful storytellers and curriculum experts within our schools now, and for the first time in history, we have the ability to deliver this change.  

COVID is a nightmare on so many levels, but within any bad situation, there is an opportunity for humanity to learn and grow and become wiser. COVID is the catalyst for change. Whether this change is via a scapegoat of simply moving from class to video conferencing or we rise up and reinvent education is entirely in our control, however, I know the pathway that my children want me to take.  

The technology solutions that we as a company are working on are building story-based simulations which are curriculum-based purpose-filled experiences. Students are not bystanders to the learning, they are an active participant.  

Imagine in year 8 learning the concept of Area in Math by being a tiler and calculating how many tiles you need to cover the floor in a kitchen. Inside this game-based scenario, you would need to calculate budgets, deal with deadlines and sharpen your customer service skills.  

In year 9 the simulations could build on year 8’s program ready for you to learn volume, only now your role is as a painter. As well as calculating the areas of the walls you are painting you now add a new dimension and learn about volume. Game-based challenges have always developed a deeper understanding of concepts and they are able to bring in all the key critical thinking skills so valued in business and industry today.  

Problem-solving moves from being a theory into practise when you find out that you are short of paint, your time is running out so you’ll have to deal with an anxious customer and this will affect your budget. How do you solve this issue? Students with this kind of education would not only be far more practical adults with what we can loosely refer to as well-grounded or common sense thinking, they would be amongst the most highly sought after candidates for the top jobs globally. Isn’t that the kind of opportunity we as educators truly want to give our students.  

Our work also focuses on the social needs of students. Our youth need to have the opportunity to safely interact and exchange conversation. While this is challenging with physical distancing, it is relatively easy to do in the virtual world with today’s technology.  

We are developing social areas for them to work in groups on projects, as well as classrooms for teachers to share information. While we would rather the world allow for real interaction - it doesn’t and won’t in the foreseeable future, but we would do well to focus on physical distancing rather than social distancing.

So let me answer the question that I posed at the start of this journey. Do I want millions spent on buildings? No. But I do want an investment made in my children, and that of every child.  I do want to leverage the destruction this pandemic has caused to reinvent an education program that delivers learning to empower the youth of today.  

If you share this thinking, we would be delighted to hear from you.