Tuesday, June 24, 2014

This Day In Snookland...Let Them Eat Software!

There'sNoCodeLikeCrony
CodeVille


You may have missed it, given the latest developments in the Snooklandian's war on teachers, including the dumbing down of the provincial tests, but last week Mr. Fassbender was caught bending facts on yet another topic.

Lindsay Kines had the story in the VTC. Here is his lede and a bit more:

Education Minister Peter Fassbender appears to have been working behind the scenes to discredit a computer system developed by the Saanich school district to track student grades, attendance and other records, documents show.

Despite stating publicly that districts were free to adopt a system of their choice, Fassbender sent a letter to directors of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association in February, advising them to steer clear of Saanich’s openStudent software.

In the letter, Fassbender accuses Saanich of trying to “undermine” the ministry’s own student information system, MyEducation B.C., by enticing districts to select openStudent. He then portrays openStudent as costly and incompatible.

“We believe that we have selected the best product to support the transformation of education in this province and I am very concerned there is misinformation being actively communicated through a variety of channels,” he states in the letter, which was obtained by the Times Colonist under B.C.’s freedom of information law...

{snippety doo-dah}

...Saanich began working on openStudent in 2011 with the goal of using local expertise to create a made-in-B.C. student information system. By using freely available open-source tools, officials believed they could develop the system for less than $5 million, with yearly maintenance pegged at less than $1 million.

The B.C. government, meanwhile, signed a 12-year deal with Fujitsu last fall to deliver MyEducation B.C. at a cost of up to $9.4 million a year.



The thing that really bugs me about this one is that it's more than money because, with openStudent,  Saanich was doing things locally, with local techies 'n geeks, and they were doing it with open source software.

And isn't that how you really grow and diversify an economy?

So.

Why do the Snooklandians hate that?


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Hmmmmm....I wonder if anybody did any lobbying 'round here for the fine folks from far away (i.e. Fujitsu)?...I bet NVG already knows the answer to that one...

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6 comments:

Paul Ramsey said...

It isn't a real enterprise system until you have 8 zeroes, everyone knows that.

RossK said...

Of course Paul.

What the heckfire was I thinking?!

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North Van's Grumps said...

The BC Government wants to keep track of every student, AND at the same time download that cost onto School Districts, when some eg. Saanich school districts can do it for less, AND create jobs locally.

Here's some links:

Last Fall, Tuesday, November 5, 2013 1:00 PM:

The ministry has entered into a 12-year contract with Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc. to deliver ConnectEdBC, a new hosted student information system. The new online platform will make it easier to engage students in their own learning, for parents to connect with educators, and for teachers to collaborate and share learning materials.

..... The new service will be built around Follett Corporation's Aspen Student Information System software .....

While delivering far better features and functionality, the value of the contract is up to $9.4 million per year. The charge to school districts will remain at $10 per student per year, the same as the current cost of maintaining the BCeSIS system.

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Google Search Criteria: Follett Corporation Aspen Student Information System Fassbender
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One out of 4020 hits Google Search Result: Fujitsu to Implement ConnectEdBC, a New Student ...

The agreement with the B.C. Ministry of Education includes Fujitsu setting up, customizing, and managing Follett's Aspen SIS application and the delivery environment, and hosting the common enterprise level student information system across British Columbia. Furthermore, Fujitsu will train teams at all participating school districts on how to implement and maintain the system.

North Van's Grumps said...

BC School Head Count 2013/2014 All Schools Public and Independents = 635,057

Going rate per student is $10

$6.4 million per year.

However:

While delivering far better features and functionality, the value of the contract is up to $9.4 million per year. The charge to school districts will remain at $10 per student per year, the same as the current cost of maintaining the BCeSIS system.

And, if Fassbender is only implementing the new software in PUBLIC schools, the Head count is 558,985 X $10 = $5.6 Million

Anonymous said...

Peter Fassbender = Petty Factbender

RossK said...

As per usual, thanks for digging up the details NVG--

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Anon-Above--

Got it - thanks.

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