Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

[pompeyfaith]

Schools across the UK are being charged up to 10 times too much for laptops and other IT equipment through mis-sold lease agreements, a BBC Radio 5 live investigation reveals.
In some cases, head teachers are being chased for payment by finance companies for equipment they were told was free.
An industry insider says the overcharging could run to hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Department for Education says there is lots of advice available for heads.
But the Leasing Advisory Service, which represents victims of mis-sold leases says, it has identified a particular problem with schools leasing computer equipment.
Under these such schemes, schools effectively hire equipment from a supplier by taking on a loan from a bank who funds the supplier.


More:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16441186

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

who was it that said teachers were intelligent....?

* maybe they are but they have piss-poor common sense, that's probably due to them being in a classroom environment all their life!

I mean come on, what tree did the numpty that thought this fall from

So Glemsford Primary School agreed to take on 100 computers on the basis that it would not cost anything.

** Sorry Pixie and other teachers, but come on - the above is one example of pure idiocy - you gotta agree

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Indeed you could not make it up are they mad no wonder schooling is now nothing like it used to be.

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Have to remember to listen to this:

You can hear the full report on 5 live Investigates on Sunday 8 January at 21:00 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

I learned my tables using an abacus FFS! Most kids nowadays don't know what one is

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

I learned my tables using an abacus FFS! Most kids nowadays don't know what one is

Most children these days have never been taught to count on their fingers, since it was decided the practice discriminated against children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide.

We didn't fiddle around with an abacus or Cuisenaire rods (link) but, then, we didn't faff around with the damn fool ITA (link) either.

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

who was it that said teachers were intelligent....?

It was probably a teacher.

Perhaps the National Curriculum should include lessons on how to read a contract and applied cynicism?

[BBoo]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

There is actually, unsurprisingly, more to this than meets the eye. Initially, when all schools were being made to have internet access, then broadband access and a certain ration of computers to pupils there was an initiative called The National Grid for Learning. This was a successful initiative (I have to say that as I was on the board of it) which got broadband and computers into all schools and ringfenced money was given to LEA's and schools to implement the strategy.

As part of this, schools had to write a comprehensive ICT Development Plan, and as part of this Headteachers faced an impossible situation as they had to write, and thus semi-commit to, a re-investment strategy to keep computers up to date while having no idea of what funding would be available, and in many cases seeing real term cuts in their budgets and having to make a decision between staff and computers (not a difficult one as long as you were willing to go against the LEA and Government).

Now there were many issues that were faced, things like training teachers to be able to use the technology, the invention of Interactive Whiteboards, the need for someone to be employed as an IT Technician to keep the computers running after some little treasure had tipped water inside it or whatever. Another pull on a tight budget.

All LEA's had access to quality advice from the NGfL team and LEA's had good ICT Development policies in place. They needed to.

However, Headteachers could not be forced to take the advice from those with knowledge, and a minority decided not to go with offers through the LEA thinking they could save money doing it themselves. It is these schools that are getting bitten. Had they listened in the first place, they would not be in this situation now, so I, as someone who was directly and very heavily involved in it all, have little sympathy for them.

[PriorityOne]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

who was it that said teachers were intelligent....?

* maybe they are but they have piss-poor common sense, that's probably due to them being in a classroom environment all their life!

They're not intelligent.... trust me; I work as one in a secondary school. I am the exception to that rule though, of course....

Most children these days have never been taught to count on their fingers, since it was decided the practice discriminated against children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide.

OMG!! You've got to be kidding!! That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. Jeez.... i'm still geting to grips with the "new" way of thinking that gets kids to add up in straight lines rather than in columns because some over-educated idiot decided they have to be shown all ways.

It doesn't work, confuses the Hell out of them and makes teaching a joke instead.... Maybe that's why shops all have tills that do the working out for you these days. Brains work like a muscle; use it or lose it.... You only have to look around you to see which direction education has gone in over the past 25 years. Chuck out the middle-class do-gooders, I say...

Min-rant over....

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Most children these days have never been taught to count on their fingers, since it was decided the practice discriminated against children whose mothers had taken Thalidomide.

OMG!! You've got to be kidding!!

I'm not.

That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time.

Is it dafter than forbidding the use of blackboards because of colour prejudice, banning "Baa, baa, black sheep", or replacing Christmas with "Winter Festival" to pander to minority religions?

Jeez.... i'm still geting to grips with the "new" way of thinking that gets kids to add up in straight lines rather than in columns because some over-educated idiot decided they have to be shown all ways.

But they're not - yet - being taught how to add up from a "Free Form" bunch of numbers written in an irregular clump in different colours of ink?

[BBoo]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Good teachers teach and pupils learn. Crap teachers don't teach and pupils don't learn. Mediocre teachers teach a bit and pupils learn a bit.

There you go - if the government read that and implemented it as policy getting rid of the last section and improving the second section educational standards would rise!

Easy!

[MarkyF]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

I learned my tables using an abacus FFS! Most kids nowadays don't know what one is

Have you looked up the Leasing Advisory Service at Companies House?

Dormant company - much like the teachers who signed up to them!!

[PriorityOne]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

I'm not.

Is it dafter than forbidding the use of blackboards because of colour prejudice, banning "Baa, baa, black sheep", or replacing Christmas with "Winter Festival" to pander to minority religions?

But they're not - yet - being taught how to add up from a "Free Form" bunch of numbers written in an irregular clump in different colours of ink?

OMG!!! WTF is going on in this country??! I had heard about the last two examples you mention but not the first. How stupid when we all use a whiteboard now anyway!!!!

Good teachers teach and pupils learn. Crap teachers don't teach and pupils don't learn. Mediocre teachers teach a bit and pupils learn a bit.

There you go - if the government read that and implemented it as policy getting rid of the last section and improving the second section educational standards would rise!

Easy!

Absolutely!! Students have achieved more in my lessons that any of my predecessors, yet I still think I'd fail an OFSTED inspection because my lessons are not chunked enough and I don't always do starters that link up the lesson "nicely".

I'll just have to turn it on for OFSTED and go back to normal when they leave then.... because my kind of students (low-level, behaviour) need a calm environment above all else and not lessons chunked so fast that they don't have time to breathe....

[garlok]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Well I was taught at grammar school to the level above standard integrals and their applied use of Newton's Calculus for GCE O Level mathematics . This is not even taught at degree level these days and we were taught by " chalk and talk " on Blackboard and we used paper's pens and pencils.

This is of particular use in all technical and scientific disciplines an example being the the manipulation of Simpson's Rule to find the area under a curve which is basic to the gas behaviour in designing the engine for your car!!! Yet we turn our face against this now because the teacher might just have to know something and the poor little darlings may just have to some real work.

Makes me mad!!

regards
Garlok

[Handyman]

Re: Schools kit 'scam could cost schools millions'

Isn't this just another scam the same as private finance initiatives already proved to be a failure and ripp of in both education and the NHS.

Not Confirmed, so please treat as here-say but I was told that one of the secondary (larger)schools in Rotherham issued each of its students an Ipad on their return from the summer holidays last year. The Idea apparently is that it will be a paperless college without the need for Text Books and note paper.

Knowing the area I can imagine how many were lost in the first week. I suppose a fair few Crack using parents would treat this as a windfall.

Apparently these Ipads were chock full of parental controls to prevent miss use. I should imagine that these locks were about as much of a deterrent to some of the more IT street wise 13 year old's as threatening them with 100 lines. Oh sorry that couldn't happen as they don't have exercise books.

You will cut and paste 100 times I mustn't download porn on the schools Ipad.

Regards all, Handy