Is BECTA Facing The Axe?

[Flakes]

No, they just need to recruit someone to switch off the lights and padlock the building now.

 

 

 

No its still around, might as well not be as our LA have retained it in full for the last 2 years (but that's a different rant). Clicky

 

same here, our LA has done the same, and used it to give us some really horrible stuff such as Nortle, realsmart, Northumberland(take a guess at who our LA is ;p ) video server, (bit like youtube, except this one doesnt work) what a waste of time and money that grant is when its spent on absolute rubbish.

[Dos_Box]

Probably copyright protected...

 

Funnily enough, I was in an LEA's web office this morning and they are looking at doing something similar before it simply vanished. Mirroring content should only be done with the ownders permission of course, so I may have to write a few emails.

Would you find it handy if we had the E-Safety and other relevant docs hosted by us?

[sparkeh]

Would you find it handy if we had the E-Safety and other relevant docs hosted by us?

 

Absolutely, in fact if the useful documentation from Becta could be put into a format where you could actually find anything then that would be superb.

[Face-Man]

What has becta ever done for us ...

 

 

FITS.

....

[Disease]

Internal Procurement Manager

Directorate: Strategic Technologies

Ref: ST33

Salary: up to £42,000 (this includes a recruitment premium of up to 20% - details of which can be provided upon request)

 

As if we needed more evidence of public sector waste and why these deep cuts are needed, 20% recruitment premium....pah.

[Dos_Box]

The FITS Foundation will be speaking at the conf next week about their courses. Luckily for The FITS Foundation, they are now a seperate entity from BECTA.

[GoldenWonder]

If Becta are getting the chop I can see BSF being slowed down at the very least. Until the massive debt is reduced then I'm sure the Tories will introduce a new similar scheme. This might take years though so I guess its only current phase BSF projects that might be completed.

[BatchFile]

Until the massive debt is reduced

As I understand it, even with all the cuts and austerity measures, the debt won't be in any danger of being reduced! it's all an effort to make things get worse more slowly To actually reduce the debt - as in pay some of it off - we'd probably have to sell half the UK off!

Edited May 24, 2010 by BatchFile

[ianniow]

BBC blog report BBC - dot.Rory: Becta: Does it deserve to die?

[alan-d]

The FITS Foundation will be speaking at the conf next week about their courses. Luckily for The FITS Foundation, they are now a seperate entity from BECTA.

 

Are the FITS Foundation still publicly funded and therefore still subject to cuts? If it is cut then there may be a good business case for Edugeek to take it on.

[Dos_Box]

The FITS Foundation are now a limited company (IIRC), although they did get an initial 'leg up' from Becta.

[alan-d]

The FITS Foundation are now a limited company (IIRC), although they did get an initial 'leg up' from Becta.

 

I thought so but wasn't sure - thanks.

[GoldenWonder]

As I understand it, even with all the cuts and austerity measures, the debt won't be in any danger of being reduced! it's all an effort to make things get worse more slowly To actually reduce the debt - as in pay some of it off - we'd probably have to sell half the UK off!

 

When I said reduced, that was just me being hopelessly optimistic!

[GrumbleDook]

Are the FITS Foundation still publicly funded and therefore still subject to cuts? If it is cut then there may be a good business case for Edugeek to take it on.

 

The FITS Foundation have been previously funded under grants from Becta during the start up phase but it has always been the intention of them running as a self-sustaining body for the accrediation of the FITS Practitioner and Manager courses.

 

FITS is now viewed very strongly by many other countries as the standard for IT Support in education and will be funded by uptake in the UK and across the world.

[Oops_my_bad]

BECTA was good lets be honest, but what benefit was there if there was no large scale uptake (read: mandatory) of their frameworks by LEAs etc

[Jiser]

BECTA was a Quango, I bet half the I.T. professionals in schools had never heard of them. However for those schools who lack technology innovators its a steep downward decline.

[joe90bass]

As with others, I'm also wondering what happens with the ICT Mark. We have Twilights planned over the next few weeks (to replace an INSET day) which involves work towards this. Our management are saying we should go ahead as BECTA in Wales isn't affected by 'the cull'. AFAIK BECTA is one UK wide body, not with devolved parts to Wales, etc, unless anyone here knows different?

[Zoom7000]

What does this mean for the BETT Show? Wasn't this also a BECTA run thing? Not sure...?

[duncane]

To be honest, I've found Edugeek a far more useful resource than Becta.

 

I can remember trying to find a straight forward answer about the requirements for parental reporting on their site, and getting no-where. In the end, various posts on here (particularly by GrumbleDook) helped clarify things for me.

[GrumbleDook]

What does this mean for the BETT Show? Wasn't this also a BECTA run thing? Not sure...?

 

The BETT Show is run by EMAP, and is driven by BESA. Becta has an input into it, but it is not Becta run.

[GrumbleDook]

To be honest, I've found Edugeek a far more useful resource than Becta.

 

I can remember trying to find a straight forward answer about the requirements for parental reporting on their site, and getting no-where. In the end, various posts on here (particularly by GrumbleDook) helped clarify things for me.

 

I, like many other people working in LAs and providing guidance and advice to schools, get this sort of information from Becta. I've always tried to be open about where I get information from ... or where I get verification from. It will be an interesting few months whilst D for E get themselves sorted and we discover where some of this sort of information will now come from.

[localzuk]

My worry is that the D for E will give this sort of IT policy jobs to some ex-teachers or some politician Eton boy with no actual knowledge of IT in education...

[GrumbleDook]

My worry is that the D for E will give this sort of IT policy jobs to some ex-teachers or some politician Eton boy with no actual knowledge of IT in education...

 

Wondering if it would be Geoff Riley who teaches economics at Eton ;-) His comments were pretty scathing about Becta in Rory's blog ... strange for a school which provides a laptop and connectivity for all their children ... erm ... Home Access scheme?

[CyberNerd]

The problem is that Becta wasn't effective because there frameworks were recommendations, and not mandatory.

I think it is fair to say that pressure from Becta and their pro open-standards stance certainly led to licensing cost reductions for all schools and a fairer playing field than existed before.

We can now wait for MS to up their prices to schools, if no-one is around to put pressure of them (or threaten legal action in the case of the old schools agreements).... Short term thinking puts up IT costs in the long run.

[GrumbleDook]

MS also get pressure from agencies such as SSAT, but yes ... I worry about that too. NEN and RBCs could have a role here to keep costs down. Then again, if they do raise prices then it could force more people over to OSS offerings.