Qld Education uses old PC panel

Queensland has decided to source its computers for the Federal Government's Digital Education Revolution via an existing panel instead of putting a new contract out to tender.

(European keyboard 1 image by
by Listener42, CC2.0)

There are five vendors on the panel from which Education Queensland bought its hardware — HP, ComputerCORP, Acer, Dell and Apple &mdash a spokesperson for the department told ZDNet.com.au.

Schools have been able to use this panel to purchase computers as required. The spokesperson said that 36,834 computers have been allocated to Queensland state schools through the Federal Government's scheme.

The panel arrangement suited Queensland because it allowed pricing and specifications to be updated monthly, the spokesperson said. Last year, Education Queensland spent $40 million on computer equipment in addition to the computers funded by the government's program.

Tasmania recently confirmed that it was also using a panel arrangement, sourcing its hardware from Lenovo and Acer. Victoria has been running a trial with the same two manufacturers, while NSW chose Lenovo.

The computers in schools plan, dubbed the "Digital Education Revolution" began with a promise of $1 billion in November 2007. An additional $807 million for the program was served up 12 months later.