MANAGING ICT


It has been some weeks since the coalition


government announced the demise of Becta. Dorothy Lepkowska looks at how this will affect schools, and asks the question – what now?


T


HE NEWS came as a huge blow. Some cut-backs had been expected but few predicted the outright closure of Becta. The organisation – formerly


known as the British Educational and Communications Technology Agency


– had been set up in 1998 to promote better use of IT in education. In May this year, it became one of the first quangos


to be targeted for closure – with the loss of all 240 jobs – under the coalition’s plans to save £6 billion to the public purse from education. Becta, which was funded by the former Department


for Children, Schools and Families, already faced a budget cut of almost half its £112.5 million annual spend over the next two years. Ministers said its closure in November will save


£80 million in this financial year. However, the agency and its supporters insisted


that Becta saved money. Some statistics suggest that for every £1 spent on Becta, £4 were being saved by schools through better deals and economies of scale. The quango insisted it offered value for money.


According to figures released on its website, £1.5 billion has been spent on technology for UK schools through its procurement agreements since 2002, and these have saved £223 million – an average


A short-sighted approach?


of £28 million annually – compared with every school doing its own procurement. It also said that it had achieved cost-savings of


£55 million for educational institutions and providers in the past year alone. In a joint response when the closure was announced, Becta’s chairman, Graham Badman, and chief executive, Stephen Crowne, said: “Becta is a very effective organisation with an international reputation, delivering valuable services to schools, colleges and children. “Our procurement arrangements save the schools


and colleges many times more than Becta costs to run. Our Home Access programme will give laptops and broadband to over 200,000 of the poorest children.” Most agree that while Becta might have been


expensive to run, it fulfilled a vital role. One of its most important jobs was to centrally procure expensive hardware and infrastructure – a role that schools will soon have to take on independently.


FOR BETTER CHILD HEALTH SCHOOL NURSES MORE


A properly resourced school nursing service is required to help schools meet the government’s health and wellbeing objectives.


Research published in the British Journal of School Nursing (BJSN) shows that more school nurses are needed to meet these objectives and ensure school children receive the health care and support they deserve. Therefore


the BJSN has launched a campaign to increase the number of school nurses.


For more information on the campaign visit


http://moreschoolnurses.co.uk Support the campaign or send us your views at:


bjsn@markallengroup.com 10


SCHOOL NURSES FOR BETTER CHILD HEALTH


MORE Andrew Thraves, a former employee at Becta and


now publishing and strategy director at GL Assessment, said: “Becta played a big role in helping schools at a time when IT was being put into schools. “It gave advice about procurement, trained teachers


in its use, and advised about the type of kit that would be most appropriate, so schools got the best value for money. Becta allowed schools to really embed IT into their day-to-day activities. “It would have been difficult for teachers to have


managed without it, in my opinion. In the early days, school staff didn’t really know what they were doing where the uses of new technologies were concerned. They are far more knowledgeable now and that again is down to the agency for the training it has provided. “Where many savings were made by schools it was


really in knowing what to buy because Becta had the wherewithal to advise on this. Schools didn’t just go out and purchase something that wouldn’t be of any use, which could easily have happened.” One of its most cherished roles was administering the


Home Access scheme, which provided an academic and social lifeline to many young people. Families seeking to benefit from it had to have a household income of less than £16,000 a year, or be entitled to free school meals. Through the scheme, pupils received a laptop and


internet access, allowing them to benefit from things like a school’s virtual learning environment, just like every other child in their school. Unlike previous schemes, the technology belonged to the family and not the school. The computer and a year’s worth of internet access were bought using a Barclaycard, preloaded with £528, which families then had to spend in one of several approved outlets on the appropriate equipment. The Home Access scheme was costing about


£150 million a year and it was planned that it would eventually reach more than a quarter of a million families. Critics of its withdrawal were quick to point out that while the Eton-flavoured coalition lost no time in cutting off internet access from the poorest children, those attending the prestigious public school were expected to arrive armed with a laptop provided by their parents. The end of the scheme will mean that thousands


of pupils will either have to rely on their schools to provide laptops, as they might have done previously, or they will have to do without if their parents cannot afford them. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT,


said scrapping Becta represented a false economy marked by an “overriding principle of political ideology” rather than a genuine attempt to receive value for money. She warned that schools might be seduced by slick advertising or promotions and may not know how to get the best value for money. “Schools often go for the most expensive systems,


and they can fall prey to the slick salesmanship the big companies can afford,” she said. “They often get stuck with systems that are not fit-for-purpose, difficult to integrate with other systems, and that are hard and expensive to maintain.” Certainly many teachers will be lost without it.


Becta has shaped schools’ whole approach to ICT in a variety of ways, and its demise leaves them wondering where they should now go to drive technology forward. Some of that will depend on the vision of the


headteacher in the school in which they work. A headteacher who understands the importance of technology in learning will ensure that his or her school maintains good quality and up-to-date resources, and that teachers receive constant training to keep them abreast of advances in development and new applications for learning. They may also set up a working group of teachers


who know about and are interested in IT, who will oversee IT development at the school.


However, expected cuts in school budgets in the


coming year may result in schools cutting back on updating hardware, especially if there is no Becta around to help them make savings. One local authority IT advisor, who asked not


to be named, said Becta’s work was recognised internationally and had put the UK on the world map as a leader in the use of technology in schools. “There are concerns that schools will slip back


into bad habits with the use of technology without that guiding hand,” he said. “The technical support that Becta provided will die with it.” He added that technology experts were mobilising


online at Edugeek, which brands itself as an “IT professionals’ lifeline” to ensure that that expertise and good practice is not lost. Not everyone is mourning the loss of the agency,


however. At the time of the announcement, the social networking site Twitter, widely used by technology educators, carried a stream of comments from heads and teachers about what it will mean. One, Geoff Riley, an economics teacher, said the


decision to close Becta was less about money but rather about an out-dated model. He said: “The open-source teaching community is way ahead – so much more exciting than a top-heavy acronym-flooded quango dictating from above.” The decision to close Becta does not affect just


schools, of course, but has a wider knock-on effect. Sellers on the agency’s list of approved suppliers were also taken by surprise by the announcement. Becta had a number of procurement frameworks


that specified particular ICT companies from which schools could procure goods and services. Each framework lasted three years, with an option


to extend for one year. The frameworks saved money for schools, because it meant that they did not have to undertake a full tender process under EU regulations when they wanted to buy ICT goods or services. It is not clear whether the frameworks will continue


after Becta closes, or how they will be managed. Suppliers said Becta had achieved significant


success in promoting ICT use in schools. “In the past decade, schools have benefited from an unprecedented investment in ICT and Becta has been part of making that happen,” an RM spokeswoman said. “The UK leads the world in technology in education, and we want to maintain that.” The agency’s demise also opens up fears over


schools’ IT security. Until now Becta has recommended practices and standards for schools and there are fears that in its absence these will lapse leaving systems vulnerable. Like all technology users, schools are susceptive to


spam, malware and malicious content, particularly as computers in schools have multiple users and where access to virtual learning environments is potentially within reach of parents and other non-school users. Oliver Hart, head of public sector sales at Sophos,


which provides security software, said now more than ever before there was a greater need to have an organisation focusing on high quality ICT in schools, particularly with the move towards free schools and academies. “Without this focus, there is a danger that a number


of schools will have poor quality ICT security practices in place at a time when legislation and the level of threat is at the highest it has ever been,” he said “At its worst, this could lead to loss of pupil data


as well as a reduced availability of IT resources in the classroom.”


SecEd • Dorothy Lepkowska is a freelance education journalist.


Further information Edugeek: www.edugeek.net


SecEd • October 14 2010


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