SCHOOL SUPPLIERS
the education of the children in your school is put in jeopardy.
What can a school do if their supplier lets them down?
If they’re a BESA member, then you can approach us at any stage with your concerns. Membership of BESA means you have an independent means of arbitration. In my experience, when schools approach us, companies quickly set the situation right. Our members take a lot of pride in delivering high-quality customer experience. However, if a company isn’t a BESA member, it is much harder to properly address concerns. If their customer service department lets you down, the alternative may be time consuming and expensive legal action. With schools being pressed for both time and finances, this isn’t an option many people are prepared to take.
EdTech is obviously a hugely important part of the mix these days - what's BESA's view on this?
BESA has been involved in the cutting-edge of EdTech for over three decades. Indeed, we set up the Bett Show back in 1985 to exhibit the latest EdTech initiatives, in spite of naysayers who said at that time that “no school will ever need more than one computer”. Jump forward to 2017, and over half of our members are now EdTech, and the Bett Show is the largest EdTech exhibition in the world, attracting over 40,000 attendees from across the globe.
Our research into ICT in schools also revealed a milestone was reached a couple of years ago – pupils now spend on average over half of their time in the classroom engaging with ICT in one form or another. This fact, coupled with the fact that English schools spend over half a billion pounds on ICT each year means that finding the right EdTech suppliers to work with is of paramount importance. Keeping abreast of new innovators is also vital, which is why I couldn’t recommend the “Bett Futures” zone for start-up EdTech companies at the annual Bett Show in January highly enough.
In these days of limited budgets, the temptation must be to choose the "cheap option" - is this ever wise?
Schools are under unprecedented pressure to cut
their budgets, and everyone in the education suppliers industry understands that. There are always efficiency savings that can be made – and it certainly shouldn’t be assumed that the most expensive is always the best! When making procurement decisions, it’s important not just to look at the price. Ask the question, “how long is it going to last?” I’ve heard of countless stories of schools buying everything from “no brand” glue sticks to pens because they are the cheapest thing available – and they literally stop working on the very same day the packet is opened. Just because a product is the cheapest doesn’t mean it will provide the greatest value. It’s better, for example, to buy one quality glue stick than have to order four that rapidly run out. Of course, while that may be just an inconvenience, in schools the stakes can be especially high – sometimes it can be the education of children that is at risk. Cutting corners by choosing to Google for free worksheets online, rather than using quality
assured resources, underpinned by rigorous pedagogy, could have serious implications.
But given the state of budgets, surely schools sometimes have no choice? We understand the bind that schools are in. BESA has monitored procurement trends in UK schools over decades, and the downturn in resources expenditure has seldom been so concerning. Real-terms cuts in education budgets are starting to bite and the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates spending per pupil will fall 6.5 per cent by 2019-20.
The UK is renowned the world over for its high standard of education and there is a voracious demand for UK educational resources, technology and talent overseas. As schools the world over benefit from the UK’s leadership in education resources, it is of the greatest importance that pupils across the UK do as well.
This is why BESA has launched the Resource Our Schools campaign, working with a coalition of organisations and suppliers, to highlight the urgent need for greater investment in resources and infrastructure for schools across the UK.
Help us make the case for greater resources expenditure by signing up to the Resource Our Schools statement at
www.resourceourschools.com Every signature we get really does make a difference.
24
www.education-today.co.uk
July/August 2017
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