Should the primary schools introduce the BYOD system?

In Switzerland, computers have been present in classrooms for a very long time already. In the nineties of the previous century, you would find one classroom per school with just enough computers for accommodating half of a class. Thus, a group of two pupils would take turns at the same computer. The focus would be on getting to use the computer as a tool or to draw graphs of a complex mathematic formula.

While the computers would be installed and maintained by the school, nowadays schools have introduced the BYOD system: bring your own device. It is already well established in the secondary-II level. Now the question at hand is: should this system be extended to the primary schools?

There are two aspects in this question: first, how much computer use is needed in the primary level and second, who should bear the responsibility of the purchase and the maintenance: the school itself or the parents and the pupils through the BYOD system?

It is out of the question that the importance of computer skills has taken a big leap in the last two decades. Computers are now everywhere, not only in form of laptops but also in form of mobile phones. Since the school has the function of preparing the children to be part of our society, it goes without saying that computers should, in a form or another, be part of the curriculum. How should such a curriculum look like and in what grade should what skill be learnt?

Nowadays, children learn to use a touch screen at very young ages mostly by playing games on a tablet or on a smartphone. Does this automatically mean that when they enter the public school, that this skill should be formalized? Let’s make an analogy: children learn to speak at home with the parents, maybe also in a day care center. When they come to school, the curriculum builds up on this by formalizing step by step the language skills: spelling, grammar, extending the vocabulary, reading etc… Every step builds on the previous ones, this is the way a curriculum works. If the curriculum of the primary school gets refactored, then computer skills must be considered but should not outweigh the other topics that still should be taught. For example, it makes no sense to prioritize typing skills before the pupils mastered handwriting.

Now let’s proceed to the second aspect of the initial question, that of rationale behind the BYOD system in primary school.

Attendance to the public school, to which the primary level and the secondary-I level belong, is mandatory but at the same time, the system is entirely subsidized by the government. Only small supplies are requested to be bought by the parents, and even this is controversial. As a matter of fact, because of it, children coming from less privileged families might get mobbed because they don’t have the more expensive version of the supply, or the parents get under financial pressure to purchase said supplies. The controversy results from the fact that the equality of opportunity is at the center of this system.

Requesting from the parents a significative purchase of a laptop computer would without a doubt provoke discontent among the parents of the middle-class and lower. Also, political uproar is foreseeable. Consequently, the government might be forced to distribute vouchers for all pupils, covering the cost of such a device. Inevitably, more wealthy parents will purchase a more expensive device, just because they can or because they want their children to stand out above the others.

The maintenance of the device is another topic. The schools won’t be able to force the parents to fix the computers, so they will have to set up an IT support desk. Given the variety of devices that will result from the BYOD system, the task of such a support instance will be very complicated.

Finally, carrying such an expensive device as a laptop computer back home would be a great responsibility for the young children, too big for many. Not to mention that they can be easy targets of snatching or of bullying, knowing that sometimes this even happens with their sandwich or their pocket money, which are much less valuable. The consequence of it would be that the laptop would stay in the classroom, even more so that homework has been abolished at the primary level.

To conclude, I don’t think that the question should be asked this way. First the curriculum should clearly define what computer skills must be learnt in what grade. Then it must be assessed whether each pupil needs his own laptop or if a school or classroom stock would not serve the purpose. Next, and only if the need of a personal laptop is confirmed, the schools should buy and maintain the laptops, both for practical reasons – only one model in service – and by principle, in order to preserve the equal opportunities.