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[LUG] linux in schools - did some probing



Peeps

I had a chat with Brian Sussex in the Devon Education thingy. Here's a
summary:

Targets are set by the dfee for ratios of pupils to schools.

1 to 7 in secondary
1 to 11 in primary

In Devon, these are being met and in many cases exceeded.

They each have a budget for Classroom and Administration IT and get
funding from a couple of things. They can spend it on what they want,
but that is a wooly area.

There is some existing Windows software which runs schools finances
and pupil information (sickness, absence, etc). 

Each school has an ICT co-ordinator, which is normally a teacher or
the head.

Teachers (or the head) generally do the IT support. Only the big
secondaries have a technician. Outside orgs are somtimes used.

There are software audits, so licensing is legal.

There are some preferred suppliers for kit, which means though that
seems a whooly area.

Education licenses for Windows are not that back breaking.

===============

So, 

There is an existing infrastructure with a supplier base and support
of which is provided internally. Changing the infrastructure would
require some serious education. The existing school management
software poses a problem in admin, of course.

Schools are meeting targets, so there is no reason to change, other
than improvement, which is a far less compelling force than meeting a
target. I'm sure, however, they'd like to save money or have more kit.

There is centralised advice, but decentralised descision making. This
give two ways in.

Credible support, hard facts and outlined benefits (and how it's worth
the effort) seem like things that need addressing.

Any other news from the front?

Steve

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