ICT in English schools: what’s the funding problem?

Ray Barker, Director of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), looks at the misconception about ICT funding

Published: 29 January, 2010

Since the demise of e-learning credits, many seem to believe that there is no dedicated funding for ICT, yet the Harnessing Technology Grant is alive and well; and guaranteed until 2011. One difficulty with this grant is that it is capital funding and, when originally launched, was not immediately accompanied by comprehensive guidelines for its use. Many local authorities therefore had to provide schools with a quick assessment of likely usage guidelines, but which turned out to be an overly restrictive interpretation when the guidelines were published some months later.

The difficulty is that the restrictive interpretation remains the perception in many schools, who believe it cannot be used for software. In fact the2009-10 guidance states: “The grant can be used to purchase computer software and digital learning resources provided that the resource being paid for (or the perpetual licence to use that resource) passes into the ownership of the school or local authority at the end of the service period; or that payment results in the school or local authority receiving a licence to use the resource for a specified time period longer than one year. This applies to both one-off purchases of software resources, and subscriptions to services that provide digital curriculum resources on an ongoing basis.” It is worth looking at the whole document, Harnessing Technology funding 2009-10, Guidance for Schools which is on the Becta website at: http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=39754.

For more information about BESA see www.besa.org.uk

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