17 Apr 2008
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the government’s £45bn programme to update the infrastructure across England’s secondary school system.
The IT element is one of the most controversial aspects of the programme, and has sparked furious reactions from those responsible for running IT in schools.
The scheme stands accused of allocating inadequate budgets, leaving schools at the mercy of centralised procurement, and potentially providing unsuitable and badly specified systems.
It is already causing rifts between schools and local authorities, amid
claims that those unwilling to sign up or that challenge grant allocations
are being penalised.
Although the scheme has already been reduced in scope, IT managers are angry
that their concerns are being ignored.
“If a school is being built on a shoestring, it won’t have the innovation and IT you want,” said Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Borough Council.
“I’m not sure if I can equip my new secondary school with the interactive whiteboards I have in my primary schools, because I don’t have the money. I’m £8m short and having to build 300 houses on a piece of the playing fields to make up the shortfall.”
Other issues cited concern the recommendations from education IT agency Becta that to achieve greater economies of scale, purchasing should be carried out by large organisations such as local authorities, and not by individual schools.
This threatens the legal position of school governors, and managed IT services contracts are shutting small companies out of the market, said Sean Doherty, a school governor.
“How do we, as governors, fulfil our legal responsibilities if the decisions are being made centrally and the schools don’t know what the costs are? BSF excludes smaller innovative companies, putting IT backwards and potentially creating mini-monopolies within local authority areas,” he said.
Independent education IT consultant Steve Molyneux said anything like attempts to create “classrooms of the future,” could waste huge amounts of money.
“This could turn out to be the biggest white elephant of all time. They’re in jeopardy of seriously damaging education for the next two decades,” he said.
It is widely thought that by standardising IT across different schools, a one-size-fits-all model will be created. “One of my concerns is that large suppliers will deliver systems around what they already have. The future element is being left out,” said Molyneux.
And it's not going to be easy for smaller companies to get in on the act.
To be approved under Becta’s list of approved, EU-compliant suppliers, companies must tender to be accepted onto a framework agreement. Suppliers are rated on factors such as financial stability and length of time trading. This will ultimately favour tier one suppliers, excluding smaller innovative companies, say critics.
Other companies and products, such as
Microsoft
Gateway, cannot be included until the next round of competition and
e-learning platform Moodle, used globally in
universities, is not on the list because it is freeware.
Managed services contracts could create mini-monopolies within local authority areas. It is claimed the only way for smaller firms to get involved would be to sub-contract to the large providers.
While councils can legally select other suppliers, Becta recommends that to
purchase the best value and most appropriate products and services,
councils must follow the framework.
In March, education specialist RM issued a profit warning, blaming the high costs of bidding for BSF contracts.
Click here to read more about the BSF programme and what it hopes to achieve.
View from the staff room - what Computing readers said about BSF:
With BSF the local education authority is not a service provider, it is a
service dictator. It will waste more money than I’ve ever seen.
School IT manager, London
Thanks to BSF, practically all technical IT staff in schools will be outs
ourced to private companies. The remaining teaching staff are severely
restricted in their ability to innovate without sound technical backup, which
the replacement toner-drones will be unable to provide.
J Wiltshire
IT in BSF is about putting a one-size-fits-all approach into schools,
installing a managed service run by companies who are more interested in profit
than in the education of our future generations. Innovation in IT will be taken
away from IT
professionals and teachers in schools, and placed in the hands of private sector
companies, away from those who care, and given to those who want their Christmas
bonus. The dynamism, innovation and pace of IT in education will die with BSF.
Marc Blake
I am optimistic about some aspects of BSF and will do what I can to ensure
that support staff in schools have their chance to make a difference. But the
realists out there know that we need to see the successes and mistakes from the
first few waves before it will be fixed, by which point hundreds of
professionals will have left schools to work in the private sector and skills
will be lost from schools.
Tony Sheppard, events organiser, Edugeek.net
I am employed in a BSF school in the Burnley/Pendle area and have had to put
up with the stress, heartache, uncertainty and mushroom management of the IT
provision and state of play regarding our jobs in the near future. Even the very
thought of looking at one of the proposals for one of our almost-built BSF
schools makes me shiver. Get out of IT in education before BSF gets in.
Saul Hudson
I am an IT manager in the education sector and have recently been involved
with BSF. The price was originally £60 per pupil, but has been increased to more
than £150 per pupil, meaning a school of 2,000 students would have to pay
£300,000 per year. This is about three times more expensive, for a far inferior
service.
Anonymous education IT manager
There really are a few important elements here. IT Support needs to remain a permanent people resource on site in high schools, colleges and universities. The IT support staff needs to be there for instant on site actions such as setting up equipment, moving equipment, fixing faults, etc...
It is important for trained and knowledgeable IT Support staff to be on-site being involved with teachers, the curriculum planning, pupils, the school's leadership/management team and the Local authority. Managed IT cannot even hope to understand and be involved to such a degree. You have to be there full time and be involved to fully understand.
I agree with the BSF strategy that can see centralised purchasing agreements for bulk buying servers, networks, Laptops, software and other such supplies. The LA or a major supplier could easily have an agreed shopping list for IT managers to pick from at agreed prices. That makes some sense and does help to unify and bring all schools up to a agreed level of resources and technology. BUT that does stifle those schools that are really innovative and have an existing excellent IT provision. We all can see that some schools do need a leg-up when it comes to IT management and provision.
This needn't be done with a fully outsourced IT service. In fact it is better not to farm-out IT support totally. What BSF should do is offer the best of both for schools. The schools should retain IT staff on site, employed by the school or LA. There should be meetings and forums setup where the LA or a single supplier would meet with school all of IT managers and agree what should be supplied and how. That way all schools can input and innovate and all schools can get on a more level playing field. Then local IT managers can liaise with the School leadership and move IT forwards in schools. Sharing best practise, ideas and knowledge can also be achieved between schools. There should also be a second level of IT support available again from a single company or LA employed that is available to schools as a technical resource working across many schools to ensure IT is being implemented in a consistent manner across the LA. If you like this level of support is your MS accredited and technical expert that the school cannot afford to employ full time.
No-one gains from outsourcing IT support and resources. The companies have to make a profit and so either service is cut or prices increased form initially agreed levels. IT expertise is lost form schools and local authorities. IT support and innovation becomes distant and hard to reach. IT becomes less important to schools and stats to diminish and be less innovative. The use of Open Source and other great services would cease to exist as we now see. In short IT support should not be outsourced because if BSF. BSF money should not be used as a noose around schools necks or a bribe to get schools to make bad choices.
Posted by: Phil Halliwell 08 Jun 2009
Clearly there are huge issues with the ICT provision and management in some schools. However, there are some schools where this is not the case and innovation and a 'can do' attitude prevail. As a Head of ICT in such a school I stand to lose my in house ICT support and suffer the problems of managed ICT which will not allow me the flexibility I require or the response time.
I know no public sector situation where managed services have led to a more satisfactory provision of ICT
Posted by: Tony Salter 27 Mar 2009
I share a lot of the concerns as to the future of ICT provision in schools under BSF especially the cost and the lack of flexibility that will come in. However let's not glorify what exists, while a lot of schools have excellent ICT some have horrendous setups which are under invested in and just are not fit for purpose. These schools are failing their teachers and students and so mean the government can't meet it's Every Child Matters agenda. Students very soon from 14 will be able to study diplomas offered at a different institution to their host school these locations will need to have joined up ICT for this to work. With the increased dependence on computers for assessment and examinations standardisation is inevitable and robust systems will need to be available for all students 24/7 hence some form of managed services will be required to replace the existing cottage industry.
Posted by: Colin Small 28 Apr 2008
As part of one of the teams leading BSF in a large authority and an ex local authority ICT adviser I feel it necessary to point out that over many years the block in innovation within many (not all) high schools has been the shortsighted view and iron grip of the ICT management whose aim in life always appears to say 'no' before hearing the problem. It really makes me smile when I hear of ICT innovation being stifled in high schools. Just talk to the countless teachers who have had their ideas rejected due to endless firewall issues, secutity risks, apparent incompatibilities. Its not just old schools that need rebuilding, its time for building a new, professional ICT workforce in schools.
Posted by: John Jones 25 Apr 2008
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