As an IT manager working in the education sector, I disagree with the comment that "Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is providing many opportunities for innovation in the education sector" (The lure of the public sector).

Unfortunately, this is simply not true - IT BSF is about putting a one-size-fits-all approach into schools,
installing a managed service, run by companies that are more interested in profit than in the education of future generations.

Innovation in IT will be taken away from IT professionals and teachers in schools and placed in the hands of private sector companies, away from those who care, and given to those who want their Christmas bonus.

The article states that "IT managers and directors are often ahead of their private sector colleagues", and this is true, however, under BSF, those IT managers and  directors will either be  transferred to the private sector company or made  redundant. Under BSF, there will not be any IT professionals in education - it will all be outsourced.

The "dynamism, innovation and pace" of IT in education will die with BSF, as schools are forced to adopt a system over which they have no control, and no ability to tailor the IT facilities to enhance the teaching and learning of those whose education is in our hands.

IT managers sometimes get a bad reputation from teachers in schools for not seeming to be flexible enough - due to the need to balance the needs of teaching with providing a stable and functional IT system.

They are in for a shock  under BSF when they find the school has no real control over the flexibility and resources of their IT provision.The NHS project has taught this government nothing because it continues to try to shoehorn everything into the middle ground.

Marc Blake