Since the retirement of Owen Lynch there has been enormous speculation as to who would take over at BECTA. Stephen Crowne has won this race and now those involved with IT (or ICT as educators irritatingly call it) will be watching and waiting to see how he stamps his authority on BECTA which has an almost equal number of supporters and detractors amongst companies who supply IT equipment and services to schools.
Mr Crowne was previously the DfES’s Director of School Resources, former Chief Executive of the Further Education Development Agency and held the role of Principal Private Secretary to several Secretaries of State for Education during the previous Conservative administration. While not wishing to decry Mr Crowne’s abilities, the appointment of another senior civil servant to run a Non-Departmental Public Body, BECTA, sends out exactly the wrong sort of message to high calibre candidates from the private sector.
