British schoolkids overcharged for software

By Steve Malone

Posted on 10 May 2005 at 10:56

British schools are spending twice as much on computer hardware and software than necessary according to a report from a government IT watchdog.

In a report leaked to the Times Educational Supplement, the British Educational Communications and Technology Association (Becta) says that Britain's primary schools could cut their software costs by half if they migrated to open source software solutions. Similarly, the UK's secondary schools could slash their costs by a quarter if they went the open source route.

The report doesn't name names on who it considers is overcharging Britain's schoolkids, but you don't need a GCSE in Computing to calculate that Microsoft is the culprit as it supplies at least some software to almost every school in the UK.

Currently, British schools are estimated to spend around £1 billion a year on updating and extending their IT investments. If the figures are correct, it raises the prospect of huge savings if the Department of Education and Skills ordered a general migration to open source.

Becta surveyed 33 schools that use paid-for software, and compared them with 15 which have migrated to using open source solutions that are generally free. According to the TES, the report discovered that the total costs (which included the cost of the proprietary software, the more powerful hardware needed to run it and support costs) were around 24 per cent per seat less among secondary schools using open source.

The results are bound to be hotly disputed by Microsoft. Over the past year, the company has made strenuous efforts under the banner of 'Get the Facts' to prove that while open source is free, the total cost of ownership is actually more with open source than with Microsoft products.

Last year Microsoft won a key battle when the London Borough of Newham, which was flirting with open source, signed a contract with Redmond after consultants Cap Gemini concluded it would be a better deal overall for council tax payers. Now it seems that Microsoft will have to take on Becta to prove its survey is wrong.