Becta bites the dust in Government cuts

Good riddance

"Our procurement arrangements save the schools and colleges many times more than Becta costs to run"

My arse! All Becta ever did was shovel money down Microsoft's throat. If they really wanted to save some money they could have done something to promote Open Source but they were just too stupid.

I doubt that whatever replaces them will any better though.

By BrownieBoy6 on 24 May 2010

Errm, just looking at the last round of approved suppliers there is an Open Source company in there - SmoothWall, the makers of a Linux firewall PC Pro have discussed before.

By bubbles16 on 24 May 2010

They also published a report pretty early on which looked into the viability of implementing open source solutions in schools - findings suggested it was a better choice than proprietary. Shame the report didn't make more of an impact: http://www.itpro.co.uk/603639/becta-open-source-an
d-education-too-little-too-late

By wayfarer_boy on 24 May 2010

Thank god

Correct me if im wrong but shouldnt the IT staff be able to work out what hardware and software to buy. I mean this is a big part of the job just coming secound to keeping the software and hardware going? I think they can do without an agency telling them.

By dumbfuk1983 on 24 May 2010

Who?

As far as I'm aware (and I worked very close with them), the techies in my school never looked at anything Becta came up with, neither did us teachers

- Any hardware/software needed, they had to get 3 quotes before the management would allow them to order a thing.

I doubt we'll notice Becta's departure

By greemble on 24 May 2010

Goodbye

Another example of previous government's top-down philosophy. Should have been replaced by much less expensive and much more effective social IT expertise years ago.

By mnj_lim on 24 May 2010

General ignorance

I worked with Becta. They created procurement frameworks to advise and support schools - hardly a "top down" authority. It's quite true that the agency struggled to get schools to understand its role, but one of the critical things it was trying to do was help schools use technology to work together, sharing resources and not re-inventing wheels. Schools are pretty bad at doing this on their own. Our new government has shown from the outset that it's not going to be thinking too deeply about education, the challenges it faces and the ways technology might help. Becta no doubt could have done many things better than it did, but simply abolishing it is a missed opportunity.

By tennyson09 on 24 May 2010

Yes, but

How much advice do schools actually need?
Once the run of requirements has been done, Becta could have published a standardised report for the various applications & hardware & just kept that ticking over. Wouldn't have needed too many people to do that, would it?

By mikerussell999 on 25 May 2010

The problem I suspect Becta had....

was proving that it had saved "many millions". If you can't validate it, you've opened yourself for cuts.

Also, if the schools are not obliged to use them, they're in a no win situation and open for cuts.

What I don't get is why does it need 240 staff? What the hell do they do?

By Ajamu1 on 25 May 2010

Saving millions

@ Ajamu1,

Quite so.

It's especially impossible to prove when you let Microsoft prevent you from releasing the details of your deal in the first place.

Unbelivably, Becta blew off a Freedom of Information request to discover the details of their deal with Microsoft because Microsoft vetoed it.

See Glyn Moody for details:

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/ind
ex.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=2978

By BrownieBoy6 on 26 May 2010

Becta

Now retired I was appalled as a successful award-winning teacher that my advice was ignored in early Becta days. It seemed, like parliament, to be a jobs-for-mates type organisation who weren't necessarily exceptional in their skills. I watched their irrelevant advice for some time and then any communications became SPAM in my in box.
I didn't see what use they were except to pass on the usual popular knowledge about expensive programmes.
I'm sure that many talented, knowledgeable teachers won't miss them and if we need to save money it's like when you put Becta in a bucket of water. Take it out and no hole is left.
Teachers should join their own advice organisations. I ran many courses (unpaid) all over the North and my very succesful students were the first to use music technology in the UK.

By kingell on 27 May 2010