MP John Pugh has tabled an early day motion to call for BECTA and the DfES to ensure schools can benefit from open source software. So far it has 19 signatories.
The text is as follows:
That this House congratulates the Open University and other schools, colleges and universities for utilising free and open source software to deliver cost-effective educational benefit not just for their own institutions but also the wider community; and expresses concern that Becta and the Department for Education and Skills, through the use of outdated purchasing frameworks, are effectively denying schools the option of benefiting from both free and open source software and the value and experience small and medium ICT companies could bring to the schools market.