Government to dish up open source in schools

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) is expected to encourage the use of open source software in schools in a report to be published next month.

The report follows a three year study on the use of open source software in 15 schools across the country, according to sources. One of the schools involved in the study was Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham, which has been running open source software on desktop computers since 2003.

Richard Rothwell, head of computing at Handsworth and chair of Schoolforge UK, said the Becta study will highlight cost reductions (support, hardware and software) associated with open source.

The initial results of the Becta study were presented to a workshop on 14 April. This workshop was attended by Sun, IBM and various open source organisations including the Association for Free Software, SchoolForge UK, the Open Source Consortium and the UK Unix and Open Systems User Group.

The workshop discussed some of the barriers to the adoption of open source software, according to a workshop attendee. These barriers include the perception that educational establishments need to 'rip and replace' proprietary software, when in fact open source software can be used in conjunction with the current infrastructure. There is also a perceived lack of support for open source software.

Becta is understood to be working with representatives of the open source community to overcome misconceptions surrounding open source software.

This is the latest government initiative to promote the use of open source software. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has funded an initiative, known as the Open Source Academy, which will provide information on open source suppliers and give local authorities a platform to collaborate on open source software projects.

The full report on the use of open source software in education is due to be released by Becta next month, after the general election.

Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNet UK