You Need
“If it is better to have your leg sawn off than be ignored, then today was a better day”, says Martin Littler, as BECTa abandons its leadership role in SEN and ICT.
BECTa Scraps SEN Team
Government seems to be scrapping the last national reservoir of expertise in using computers with learners who have special needs. In the effective use of computers in education, Special Needs led British Education and British Education led the World (still does in the Special Needs field). Now the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) is set to join QCA (whose SEN posts were scrapped some time ago) and the National College for School Leadership (where there never was any expertise) in being blind to Special Needs issues and the great opportunities technology offers learners with SEN.
They should have learned. A few years ago the Government launched its massive NOF teacher training programme with no Special School offering at all. There were howls of protest and when this was remedied the SEN offering was undoubtedly the greatest success of the NOF programme.
Much of what works in schools today owes its origins to pioneering work in LEAs led by the four SEMERCs and the two ACE Centres. The best practice with Interactive Whiteboards today can trace its roots back to touch screens and the Concept Keyboard. Content-free “framework programs” were developed at Manchester SEMERC leading (via programs like My World originally developed for just one child) directly to today’s mainstream block-busters like Clicker 5. Today British software for learners with Severe and Complex SEN leads the world and is far more developed than in the United States, for instance.
This is no accident. In the 80’s the four SEMERCs and two ACE Centres were set up by BECTa’s direct ancestor, The Council for Educational Technology (CET). The strong Special Needs team then led by Mary Hope, later Peter Fowler, then Tina Detheridge and now the redoubtable Chris Stevens, survived the merger with MEP and the name changes - MESU, NCET, BECTa (I’m sure there was another) – to remain a continuously useful source of leadership and expertise over almost 25 years. Until today.
Where are the QCA, NCSL let alone the DfES going to get their advice and guidance on Special Needs and ICT? Where can LEAs look to? Who will specialist companies like mine talk to at BECTa?
Learners with SEN, and the Special Schools and mainstream specialists who serve them, need a champion in Government as never before. Why was CAP dumped? Who has given any thought to Learning Platforms in a Special School setting? What relevant School Leadership training is available to Special School Heads. Where was the SEN thinking when Curriculum Online was set up.
Britain can lead the world in SEN and ICT. It already does in software for the most severely disabled. SEN can be the hotbed and laboratory for successful mainstream applications. An expanded SEN team at BECTa would pay dividends. Scrapping what we have is stupid.
Martin Littler
Managing Director of Inclusive Technology
April 2006