The total cost of ownership (TCO) of implementing ICT in schools

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 | Implementation Issues

Do not think for one moment that the cost of implementing ICT in schools is restricted to the cost of hardware.  When contemplating to bring technology into your school for the first time, or to expand its use, consider the following:

The total cost of ownership of ICT in a school is much more than the initial cost – it includes recurring and hidden costs.

Recurring costs of ICT are those that come back again and again, such as software licence fees and often exceed the initial cost.

Hidden costs are those expenses that you don’t foresee when you purchase ICT equipment, such as additional training.

The main cost of installing ICT in your school may not be the technology itself but rather that of creating an appropriate infrastructure.

Never underestimate the cost of training teachers to equip them with the necessary skills to use ICT optimally.

These thoughs were tweeted by @e4africa with the tag #ictschooltip.

Tags: TCO, total cost of ownership

1 Comment to The total cost of ownership (TCO) of implementing ICT in schools

Charles
Tuesday, 13 September, 2011

All these comments point towards the the need to budget carefully for ICT. This needs to be done on two levels. Firstly there is a need for education authorities to make annual provision for sustaining ICT facilities at schools. This should be done in two ways – by making provision for upgrades via the procurement process and by providing some sort of norms and standards funding to schools for operational costs. Secondly the school needs to budget to supplement that which is available from the education department taking ownership of the technology in the process, no matter how small or big the budget may be.