Stephen O'Neill wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Mac wrote: > | James Grabham wrote: > |>> Its got nothing to do with the school, it will be up to the LEA > |>> unfortunately. > | > | James >>> I don't think that's right: schools make their own decisions > | these days. And there's actually no such thing as Local Education > | Authorities any more (those ceased to exist as legal entities a couple > | of years ago). So Craig may have some success just in his own school. > | Let's hope so! > > > LEAs are now known as LAs - Local Authorities, but they're basically the > ~ same thing as far as I know.
Briefly, and at the risk of straying off topic, the parts of Local Authorities that used to be called the Local Education Authority have been merged with what used to be children's social services into entities called Children's Services Authorities whose remit goes way beyond education, in respect of which the main functions have become on the one hand strategic and on the other inspectorial (mainly through oversight of School Improvement Partners who work directly with schools on school's own development agendas). Schools, under the government's New Relationship with Schools policies, are very much their own masters, and manage their own budgets; though they may, if they wish, buy services offered by various parts of Local Authorities. But that's not Craig's main problem. The continuing difficulty for free software in education is the unquestioned acceptance that M$ software is the de-facto standard that employers will expect young people to use. At the highest level in IT in the Local Authority where I work (not in IT but in the education bit of Children's Services) the mere mention of Linux is immediately dismissed with ill-disguised derision. But that's the corporate organisation. Individual schools up and down the country are taking their own decisions about free software. Not many. But enough for the adventurous and far-sighted and those who care more about education than about shaping the labour market not to feel entirely alone. And the Vista debacle, the cost of upgrading hardware to run Vista and Office 2007, and the Danegeld schools must go on paying to Microsoft, are all factors that are starting to cause financial managers to challenge their IT colleagues to consider alternaives - as the BECTA report, too, enjoins them to do. Phew. End of rant. But my hope is with young men like Craig, who have a sense of the significance of Ubuntu and other free software at a time in their lives when not being told what to do - by teachers, parents, Bill Gates, or anyone else - matters enough for them to find ways of being their own people. More power to you, Craig! Mac -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
