ABOUT

Pearson D&AD Competition. Solving a problem in education that will accommodate the needs of the growth of education with technology's involvement in 10 years.

People who miss out on school at the most important time in their academic career are falling out of the system; with no help from anywhere to get back on their educated feet, they end up stranded and helpless, unable to move forward without either starting the year again from scratch, or leaving education entirely. Students are most likely to leave school if they have an on going illness, disability, are a young carer or live in poverty. All around the world, people’s education is suffering based on their discrimination. Currently, one-in-five pupils leave school at 16 before taking A-level style qualifications. And that isn’t including the ones that drop out before they have even finished their GCSEs. As education around the world increases, this will only get worse.

Pearson's UpdatED would be a machine learning system that tracks and monitors the attendance and progress of each student. The ages of 16-18 are the easiest to fall out of the system, so that’s why UpdatED encourages users to sign up at the age of 15, so they already are being monitored when it comes to this crucial time.
UpdatED would provide constant communication to the system which monitors and tracks their education as they frequently update it, by logging in and clicking whether they have or have not attended school that day.If they have been recorded to be out of school for 15 school days, or the student declares in advance they will be out of education, then they will directly send them work to maintain a level of education at their own workable pace; automatically notifying the council and their place of study, to inform them of their situation and update them on the work and progress they are making.

In 10 years technology will have developed and become less expensive, hospital bedside TVs will be replaced with tablets, which would allow the patient to interact and gain access to the app. The UpdatED advert would run on the tablet to advertise the service to any patients that are already signed up, or to students new to the system who are just missing out on school for the first time.
This would enable the patient to work when they can, creating a temporary (or permanent) convenient way to educate, fitting around illness and ability; removing complications of allocated set times to work and travelling to a place of learning.
The tablets will be set up in many public places, to give as many students the best opportunity as possible at a good education. The availability after school hours appeals to the people who cannot be available to attend their lessons in school, meaning whatever is causing them to miss school, they are still not disadvantaged by the education system.
The students that need help or are unable to complete their education in the usual environment are able to ‘buddy up’ with another student that is receiving full mainstream education, which enables all students to have peer-to-peer communication and feedback that is often lost when people are unable to attend school. This is something these students feel they greatly miss out on.
The student will be able to remain in the education system by maintaining their education to the best of their ability.
Also launching the app on 8th September, International literacy day, gives Pearson’s UpdatED even more power and fighting force, showing the world that together we can give the world a better education.