Government must review schools IT procurement

Education sector scheme includes £15bn-worth of technology investment

Schools IT procurement must be reviewed says government select committee

The £15bn-worth of IT procurements in the government's schools improvement programme need to be re-evaluated, MPs said today.

The £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme will rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools in England over 15 years, including IT investment three times larger than the ID card scheme and one and a half times the NHS technology programme.

But the current procurement method is not the most efficienct, says a House of Commons education committee report.

The way schools buy IT is not structured to take advantage of technological development, trade group Intellect director Nick Kalisperas told the committee.

‘We want to see the IT in this programme being used to effect real change, and that currently is not being reflected in the way procurements are being taken forward,’ he said.

The committee recommends that information about system in use is made widely known amongst authorities so schools can take advantage of the experience of those which have already procured their IT.

Technology needs to be viewed as the ‘fourth utility’ by staff and pupils, says the report. And it needs to be simple to use and integral to the school environment from the building design stage onwards.