The very first requirement demanded of my students is phones and laptops off, put away, allowing them to concentrate for the full hour. Students are constantly online, distracted and, as a result, not focused. For example, not so long ago, I was asked to give a series of lectures in Spain’s highest-rated postgraduate business school. I faced an entire class of students on their phones and online as I tried to teach them macroeconomics, which can be tricky, technical, counterintuitive and intellectually difficult. It doesn’t work. Either students are in class, attentive and alert, or there is no point.

Learning also takes time. Patience is essential and so too is some form of the relentless repetition that is regularly dismissed as rote learning, but is actually the process of figuring something out. Constant distraction rarely allows the penny to drop.

The Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) results for educational achievement, published last week and revealing falls across the board in developed countries, don’t reassure those of us who see education and learning not just as the cornerstone of a vibrant economy, but the foundational block of a civilised society.

In terms of economics, a study into school performance and future economic growth found that differences in cognitive skills lead to significant differences in economic growth. An extra 100 points on Pisa scores is associated with approximately two percentage points higher annual growth in per capita GDP. A good example of this is Poland, where Pisa scores increased by 25 points between 2002 and 2012, correlating (but obviously not the only contributing factor) with its huge economic growth once those students entered the workforce. The exemplar in this area is Ireland, where significant increases in the early 2000s in Pisa scores contributed to driving the economy forward in subsequent........

© The Irish Times