Becta, originally known as the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, was a

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of n ...

(popularly known as a

Quango A quango or QUANGO (less often QuANGO or QANGO) is an organisation to which a government has devolved power, but which is still partly controlled and/or financed by government bodies. The term was originally a shortening of "quasi-NGO", where NG ...

) funded by the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

and its predecessor departments, in the United Kingdom. It was a charity and a

company limited by guarantee In British, Australian, Bermudian, Hong Kong and Irish company law (and previously New Zealand), a company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of corporation used primarily (but not exclusively) for non-profit organisations that require legal pe ...

. The abolition of Becta was announced in the May 2010 post-election spending review. Government funding was discontinued in March 2011. Becta went into liquidation in April 2011.

Role

Becta was the lead agency in the United Kingdom for promotion and integration of

information and communications technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

(ICT) in education. Becta was a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. It was established in 1998 through the reconstitution of the

National Council for Educational Technology The National Council for Educational Technology provided advice and support for schools and colleges in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on educational technology, in particular the use of computers for teaching and learning. The Departmen ...

(NCET), which oversaw the procurement of all ICT equipment and

e-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and Education sciences, educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edt ...

strategy for schools.

Policy

Foremost among the 2005–2008 Becta strategic objectives were "to influence strategic direction and development of national education policy to best take advantage of technology" and "to develop a national digital infrastructure and resources strategy leading to greater national coherence."

National Grid for Learning

The

National Grid for Learning The National Grid for Learning (NGfL) was a UK government-funded gateway to educational resources on the Internet. It featured many individually selected links to resources and materials deemed to be of high quality. The NGfL was specifically se ...

(NGfL) was managed by Becta and was set up as a gateway to educational resources on to support schools and colleges across the UK. The NGfL portal was launched in November 1998, as one of several new programmes initiated by the new Labour government which took office in May 1997 and had a linked budget of earmarked funds to be spent on schools' internet connections and ICT.

Purchasing Frameworks

Becta awarded certain vendors placement on approved "purchasing frameworks": The purchasing frameworks were criticised as being outdated, and for effectively denying schools the option of benefiting from both free and open source and the value and experience of small and medium ICT companies. Participating companies had to have a net worth of at least £700,000 to qualify and had to satisfy a list of functional requirements. A concern was raised about the "over-comfortable relationship the government has with some of the bigger players." In January 2007, Crispin Weston, who had helped Becta draw up the criteria used to select suppliers, asked the EC Competition Commission to investigate his allegation that a significant number of the successful tenders had failed to implement the mandatory functional requirements, including particular aspects of inter-operability. He also added in his letter to the Commission that they should take action on the further issue of:

References

{{Reflist

External links

Archived Becta website

Generator – technology improvement leadership tool for FE and Skills

Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA)
holds an archive of Becta publications.

Video clips

Becta YouTube channel

Next Generation YouTube channel
Computer science education in the United Kingdom Department for Education Defunct public bodies of the United Kingdom Education in Coventry Governmental educational technology organizations Information technology education Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Coventry Organizations established in 1998 Organizations disestablished in 2011 Public education in the United Kingdom University of Warwick 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom 2011 disestablishments in the United Kingdom