BECTA closed by new UK Government
Staff at BECTA, the government body that “promotes technology in learning” were told at 10.00 this morning that the quango would close in November. There has been a deluge of Tweets on the subject and #becta is currently one of the highest trending topics in the UK at the moment. But does it matter?!
My initial reaction to the news was similar to Joe at Firefly:
@j0ejack: Hoping that closure of #becta will open up state sector ICT to new innovation. #becta didn’t seem interested in talking to the little guys
We also had a hard time getting any traction with BECTA, they certainly weren’t interested in talking to smaller companies like us from a procurement perspective. Having worked both for government departments and large companies I can understand some of the reasons for this but ultimately felt that it was schools that were losing out, sometimes being charged over the odds for hardware or services just because they were buying from someone with a BECTA badge.
However, BECTA did have a positive influence – they provided us with a set of standards and best practices that allowed us to say “Here’s what BECTA recommend, we’ve adhered to it and here’s how we’ve made it even better”. I know that FITS, the Framework for ICT Technical Support and the Self Review Framework have been instrumental in transforming a number of schools’ IT support and infrastructure provisions, providing a far better experience for students and teachers alike. Not to mention the work done around the Home Access programme, helping to get laptops and broadband access to those who wouldn’t normally be able to afford it.
I obviously have a biased view but think from an innovation and procurement perspective the closure of BECTA is a good thing, especially for non-PLC companies like us. My only hope is that what useful work they have done for schools in raising standards is appropriately transferred elsewhere and is able to continue to make a positive difference.
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