Pay Theory Blog
June 30, 2022

3 Ways Edtech is Revolutionizing Finance in Education

School finances are a sensitive balance between maximizing learning opportunities and remaining accessible to as many families as possible. Recent learning disruptions, such as the rise of remote instruction, have more and more schools turning to integrate Edtech in their school management.

Keep reading to see 3 key ways Edtech is making a difference in the future of education and school finances.

Payment Inclusivity

Edtech is helping school districts provide higher quality education at low costs to families, creating more inclusive opportunities for all students.

The Education Commission found that the pandemic uncovered issues such as “unequal access to remote learning and poor quality of instruction” for K-12 families. We think this was also contributed by the dip in the educator labor market and earnings. With Edtech rapidly integrating into school districts, we’re already seeing these issues progress for the better.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s already happening. The Sustainable Development Goal 4 from the United Nations, issued in 2015, has a plan to provide equal and lifelong educational opportunities. By 2030 all children will have access to “12 years of free, publicly funded, inclusive, equitable, quality primary and secondary education.”

This is possible because integrating Edtech payment technologies enables schools to hire quality instructors at a cost that includes student data and AI analytics. With technology creating automatic lesson plans, educators have more bandwidth to reach their goals and further students' learning.

Additionally, this cuts costs on families that can be used for other expenses such as sports, school lunches, and field trips. Families of all socioeconomic calibers have more resources than in past decades to provide their students with all the opportunities available.

Accelerate Learning Outcomes

We know Edtech is making a large difference, and it’s being felt all over the world. For example, in 2013, refugee camps across 5 developing countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, were provided high-level education the students there would otherwise never be able to afford. This was accomplished through Instant Network Schools which was one of many affordable solutions for school finance systems.

This “free digital program provided tablets for learners, laptops for teachers, a projector and speaker, and 4G connectivity”. In the final outcome, after only a year, student literacy increased by 61% while boosting teacher confidence and motivation by 125%!

Edtech provides transparency and accessibility for school administrators, teachers, and families to provide personalized education to each student at the lowest cost. Without Edtech learning and online payment integrations students worldwide wouldn’t have opportunities, like the students in these refugee camps, to grow with this new kind of learning.  

Edtech is more than just "investing in access alone", it's about adapting programs to serve each district's family's needs.

Affordability

Edtech is by and particularly important for school administrators in school finance. It’s extremely efficient and effective in forecasting “data for benchmarking, planning, and budgeting purposes.” Edtech is more than just “investing in access alone”, it’s about adapting programs to serve each district’s family's needs and school finance situations the best. Technology has the power to do this better and faster than manual planning when administrators are already overseeing a multitude of other tasks.

At the end of the day, we found many alarming statistics on the relationship between school finances and student families.

According to EdTechnology:

  • 75% of Students Worry About Finances related to affording their Education
  • 67% developed Anxiety or Mental Health deficits as a result of School Finances
  • 48% have, at one point, considered Dropping Out because of Financial Barriers

And these statistics don’t even touch on the stress faced by parents and administrators. Thankfully, these shared burdens of meeting budgets to provide the best quality education is being relieved with Edtech solutions.

Technological learning integrated with both automated payments and school finance management is how we’re going to be able to create student success in the changing world.