Besa bash the BBC!
I find it hard to reconcile the recent press release from trade association the British Education Suppliers Association (BESA) with the BBC Trust Decision it refers to.
Parking the fact that BESA members benefitted from £500m per year through Curriculum Online and e-learning credits, they just don't seem able to let it go! BESA's take on the BBC Trust committee's report is a little mis-leading and its worth stating that the BBC Trust Committee found:
" ... no evidence to suggest that Bitesize and Learning Zone Broadband did not go through the correct approvals process at the time they were introduced."
" ... no evidence to suggest that, prior to 2007, the development of Bitesize and Learning Zone Broadband occurred without sufficient regulation."
They do conclude however that an impact assessment should have been carried out, a somewhat technical point.
I profoundly disagree with BESA's assertion that the BBC has no place in providing a free, universal entitlement to accessible high quality resources for all children. In my opinion this is at the heart of the BBC's public interest mandate. As a body that represents an industry that lives on public money, BESA must recognise that the way the public purse is spent is not its business and the tail shouldn't ever wag the dog. Playing shops by giving schools money in the hope they spend it on the right resources is innefficient, (Curriculum Online was not a success as is proved by the number of BESA's members product CD's we still find buried unistalled in drawers in school departments).
There is of course a legitimate debate to be had about the scope of the BBC's wider activities, but the organisation provides services that are highly valued by educators and recognised as cutting edge.