Approaches to human learning and classroom pedagogy have remained relatively stable over the past few decades. But with the rise of digital, it is finally poised to undergo change on a scale not seen in centuries.Education in Australia and New Zealand, like many other countries in the developed world, is seeing change driven by technology. This is creating opportunities for new players and threatening long standing publishers.

Key takeaways

In Australia, Education is a large industry with ~A$60B in spending in FY15. The Australian Federal, State and Territory governments spent ~A$51B, while private funding supported the rest.

Increasing technology penetration and democratisation of information is driving the disruption. The proliferation of devices in classrooms and free availability of education information is changing how teachers teach and students learning needs.

As a result, pedagogy is changing and the e-learning market has risen to prominence, putting existing publishers at risk. School education is evolving to the new models – flipped classrooms, competency based learning, the Dalton Plan and more.

However, this is just the start of the change. Emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality, are poised to cause further disruption and have the potential to bring about the end of the physical classroom.

This report focuses on primary and secondary education. Part 2 will explore the impact of disruptive technology on the tertiary and vocational segment of the education market.