The EconomistAugust 31st 2019 Britain 25F
or pupilsat St Thomas Aquinas, a state
secondary in Glasgow’s suburbs, the
post-summer return to school was leav-
ened with the promise of a gift: an iPad for
every child. The tablets cannot download
apps, are tracked by the school and come
with a firewall to block off-limits parts of
the internet, but the pupils can take the de-
vices home. Not all year groups have so far
received them, leaving the rest jealous,
says Barry Quinn, the deputy head. “They
can’t wait for theirs to be deployed.”
The giveaway is part of a £300m
($370m) contract signed by Glasgow City
Council with cgi, a Canadian itfirm, under
which iPads will be handed out to nearly
50,000 pupils aged nine to 17 by 2021. More
will be sent to nurseries. The deal also cov-
ers other services, including Wi-Fi links
and data analysis in hospitals, leaving the
council unable to say exactly how much
has been spent on the iPads. But they are
not the only ones to splash cash on gadgets.
The city joins Edinburgh, which has 27,000
iPads in its schools, and the Borders, which
plans to give them to all children in the
same age range as Glasgow.
According to Glasgow council, tablets
will improve digital literacy, preparing pu-
pils for workplaces where tech is ubiqui-
tous. They can be used to share informa-
tion, set homework and replace textbooks.
Teachers have had a year to get up to speed
with how to use the things. The project
“will result in raising attainment and
achievement in every one of our schools
and nurseries,” promises Chris Cunning-
ham, Glasgow’s head of education.
If so, that would make it different from
similar past experiments. Philip Oreopou-
los of the University of Toronto, co-author
of a forthcoming review of randomised
control trials on education technology,
notes that results show academic consen-
sus: although handing out laptops in-
creases computer use, it has no impact or
even (in one study) a negative one on at-
tainment. There is not as much rigorous re-
search on tablets, but little reason to think
results would differ. The worry is that they
end up distracting pupils more than they
help them study.
Some programmes that use computers
for personalised tuition have, though, pro-
duced promising results. With the right
software and careful management of how
they are used, tablets could help, says Mr
Oreopoulos. Yet so far their use in Scotlandseems to be less well defined. At St Thomas
Aquinas, they have been used for catch-up
quizzes at the start of maths lessons and to
film gymnastics to check on technique.
Teachers have been told to use them in ev-
ery lesson, but left to decide how.
Another argument for the handout is
that it levels the playing field for children
who do not have access to the latest tech-
nology at home, and does so in a way that
does not stigmatise those who most need
the help. Critics respond that buying ex-
pensive gadgets for all is a poor way to help
these pupils, especially when there are
cheaper programmes that have shown bet-
ter results. Giving out iPads may allow poli-
ticians to say they are dragging schools into
the 21st century, but that does not mean
they are a sensible investment. 7GLASGOW
Scottish pupils are to get free iPads.
Will the gadgets inspire or distract?Education and technologyPrescribing tablets
O
n a coolevening in April, Bury Foot-
ball Club celebrated. A 1-1 draw against
Tranmere Rovers was enough to win pro-
motion from the fourth to the third tier of
English football. Four months later, the
134-year-old club is no more. Dire financial
circumstances led to it being kicked out of
the English Football League (efl) on Au-
gust 27th, after a rescue bid collapsed.
Life is not easy in the lower leagues of
English football. The future of Bolton Wan-
derers, whose stadium is just a 30-minute
drive from Bury’s ground and who play inthe same league, was also in doubt until a
last-minute deal was reached on August
28th. If the club had not found a buyer
within a fortnight, it too would have been
expelled. Bolton competed at European
level as recently as 2008. In its latest
matches, the team has been forced to field
teenagers against the often brutish jour-
neymen who dominate this tier.
Bury and Bolton have both suffered
mismanagement. Bury’s tangled web of fi-
nances—which included a complicated
mortgage on the club’s ground and a
scheme by a former chairman that in-
volved selling the club’s car-parking spaces
for £10,000 ($12,200) each—caused a po-
tential buyer to balk at the last moment.
Last week Steve Dale, the businessman
who acquired the club for £1 in December,
admitted that he “didn’t even know there
was a football team called Bury” before he
bought it. Bolton had been looking for a
buyer since falling into administration in
May. The deal almost collapsed this week-
end with the club’s administrator blaming
Ken Anderson, its previous owner, for
scuppering it at the last moment (Mr An-
derson denies this). “Over the years some
quite strange people have taken over and
run football clubs,” summed up Greg Dyke,
a former chairman of the Football Associa-
tion, delicately.
Strange people are common in football.
This is mainly because, as a rule, buying a
club is a bad idea if you plan on making
money. In the Championship, the second
tier of English football, wages swallow
106% of turnover, according to Deloitte, a
consultancy. It is little better in League One
(confusingly, the third tier), where wages
make up 94% of turnover. In 2017, the last
year accounts are publicly available, Bury
reported a loss of £2.8m from revenues of
£4.7m. (By contrast Manchester United,
whose ground is a 55-minute hop on a tram
from Bury, had a turnover of £590m last
year and operating profit of £44m.)
Unsurprisingly, dire financial straits
are common at the bottom of the football
pyramid, where there are smaller crowds
and less money is to be made from spon-
sorship and broadcasting rights. Bury was
one of ten sides to become insolvent in
2002, when a tvdeal for lower-league clubs
fell apart. Since then, English football clubs
have entered insolvency proceedings an-
other 27 times. Yet outright collapse is rare.
Before Bury, the last club to be kicked out of
the league was Maidstone United in 1992.
Comebacks are possible. A resurrected
Maidstone is clawing its way back up the
footballing ladder. Groups of Bury fans
have already discussed setting up a “phoe-
nix” club. Bury has a famous history. Until
last season it held the record for the biggest
faCup final victory, with its 6-0 thrashing
of Derby County in 1903. If the fans have
their way, it may still have a future. 7The demise of a 134-year-old football
club shows the trials of lower leaguesThe football businessBury, buried
They think it’s all over