Free online resource provider backs Becta axe
26 May 2010
by: Margaret Snell
The government's decision to abolish the education ICT agency Becta by November has been met with mixed reaction. While up to 240 jobs will go and the quango’s services cut, industry commentators ask if Becta will truly be missed.
The Agency was set up in 1998 to guide the strategic direction and development of national education policy to best take advantage of technology. It was originally mandated to make ICT more accessible to tech-naïve teachers by the procurement of ICT equipment and development of an e-learning strategy for schools.
Odhran Irwin of ALISON, the company offers free online learning to individual users, was one who questioned Becta’s value. Irwin said: “While Becta's lofty ambitions of integrating ICT into every classroom in the UK are commendable, things rarely matched their original plans in reality.” There were complaints from schools who felt they were not given enough input into the decision making process. End users complained of inadequate technology not fit for its purpose, technology being out of date and hefty fees for new software resulting in reluctance to update. Becta recently admitted that only one school in five knew how to effectively utilise their new technology.
Becta was also criticised for sourcing expensive versions of the latest e-learning software to create enhanced learning outcomes in the classroom. However Irwin believes this proved to be an inefficient waste of funds as many users were unable to utilise the e-learning software.
Irwin argues that “as technology evolves at a lightning quick pace, downloading the latest free software would have allowed schools to keep their systems up to date. Instead large sums of money were profligately used to upgrade systems. Today there is a multitude of free high quality open source software on the web which achieves the same objective as the expensive software Becta procured.”
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