| | DECEMBER 20208IN MY OPINIONEducation Technology Growth in EuropeBy Jim Knight, Chief Education and External Officer, TesThis should be a great time for EdTech in the UK. According to the Education Foundation, it accounts for 4 percent of digital companies; the Guardian reckons the sector leverages over £900 million of spend by schools; and the Government finally have an EdTech strategy. The sector is growing at 22 percent per year. And yet, If you look for companies that have good market penetration and reasonable levels of EBITDA, there are very few. It seems that it is really hard to grow beyond a certain level and when you do there are then plenty of acquisitive "partners" waiting to gobble you up.There are some well-established technology tools used in schools. Capita SIMS is dominant in the MIS space, and remarkably resilient in seeing off seemingly superior cloud based solutions. I work at Tes, awell-established software services business in teacher recruitment, resources and now training. Twinkl are doing well in resources for primary, and Google have great adoption of Classroom and other tools.Despite the name, not even the last of these really tackles pedagogy. Perhaps that is why the Government's EdTech strategy notably avoids mentioning learning! I can think of few EdTech companies that are winning in the core business of classroom practice.This goes to the adoption problem. There are some great applications of technology that solve a problem that education doesn't know it has. If you don't start with teachers then wide scale adoption is too hard. Education is a profoundly human business. If the product helps, rather than replaces, the teacher then a good product team will at least be close to the teacher, and then adoption may happen ­ as long as there is understanding that the purchaser is rarely the user.Hence the second problem - the fragmented nature of the market. I regularly have conversations with excited EdTech entrepreneurs who want advice on how to grow in England. My instant response is "why England?" Here we have an unenthusiastic policy environment, a very traditional curriculum that we know how to deliver well without technology, and over 25,000 separate purchasers!There are very few education businesses who are big enough to
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