Parliamentary opposition grows against Government IT policy in schools

Nearly 1 in 5 backbenchers from all parties have questioned the exclusion of open source software from UK schools in their response to an early day motion (EDM) tabled by John Pugh MP.  The motion addresses concern for government policy which stifles innovation and locks users into high cost software.

The EDM, tabled on 21st November 2006, questions policy that promotes the exclusive use of expensive, proprietary software in schools.
Details of the EDM together with a list of the MPs who have supported the motion can be found here.

MPs supporting the EDM have stressed their concern that limiting suppliers to a select group of vendors excludes most UK-based SMEs that have traditionally supplied local schools.

John Pugh MP, said:  “In my experience a school is a key part of the community and as such has a role to play in the economy of that community.  By supporting SMEs the local high-technology industry will be encouraged which will benefit everyone.”

DfES policy favours the procurement of proprietary technologies from global brands despite extensive research by the government's education ICT quango, BECTA, showing that schools could save millions by switching to Open Source software.

Sue McGuire, School Governor and member of the Open Schools Alliance commented "As a school governor I am concerned with the actual economics of the DfeS argument – someone must be able to explain why software that is supplied free of charge is supposed to cost more than similar software from the wealthiest company in the world.” 

About the Open Schools Alliance

The Open Schools Alliance is an umbrella organisation bringing together companies, organisations and individuals concerned about ICT in UK education. These include the Open Source Consortium (representing OSS-focused IT companies), SchoolForge-UK (representing educationalists), FFII UK (central to the recent campaign against software patents) and UKUUG (representing over a thousand IT experts across the country).

The Open Schools Alliance exists to promote the greater use of Free and Open Source Software and open standards in UK education.

For more information, see http://www.openschoolsalliance.org
> <http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/>.

About Open Source Software and Open Standards

Open source is a process which enables SMEs and large organisations to contribute to reusable high quality, reusable software, by deploying this software with open, often internationally approved standards, companies can cooperate on technology and compete on service,  Users benefit because they can choose where to obtain this software free or with support, and with open standards they retain control of their data.  The process prevents lock-in, so users never have to pay to upgrade, merely because the producers have released a new version of a product with different formats.

See for example
http://www.gnu.org, http://www.opensource.org

EARLY DAY MOTION 179

SOFTWARE IN SCHOOLS  21.11.2006
Pugh, John
That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools, colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the option of benefiting from both free and open source software and the value and experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools market.