Becta to Close with the Loss of 240 Jobs

George Osbourne, Chancellor, and David Laws, Treasury Minister, have announced today they will close the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, commonly known as Becta. In a speech outlining the coalition governments plans to cut £6.25 billion of spending, they stated that Becta will close with the loss of 240 jobs. Mr Osbourne believes that this will save the government at least £65 million next year.

The chairman of Becta, Graham Badman and chief executive Stephen Crowne, put out a statement describing Becta as "a very effective organisation which, among other things, was giving laptops and broadband to over 200,000 of Britain's poorest children." This was part of the Home access scheme set up by the previous government. Concerns regarding where schools will turn for ICT advice and information have already been raised by some teachers. Others are claiming that the benefits for schools and universities outweigh any negatives raised by the closure of Becta. Becta was a stong advocate for proprietry software, sometimes to the exclusion of open source solutions. Schools will now be able to chose how and with whom, to spend their IT budget.

A new way for schools to keep upto date with new technology and ensure it reaches the classroom will need to be found, or there will be a high risk of schools not knowing where to turn and some pupils losing out to more IT literate establishments.