The Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, UK Education Secretary endorses the great work of the A4L Community

WASHINGTON - Jan. 20, 2016 - PRLog -- Since March 2015, the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community has been working with the Department for Education (DfE) on open standards principles and data exchange, and the recognition provided today by the Education Minister endorses the Community’s efforts, not only within the United Kingdom but internationally.

“My department intends to begin prototyping new systems for data collection - data exchange - in 2016. It will implement common data standards and work with the Access 4 Learning Community who have achieved great things locally and internationally” - Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities

“The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is thrilled to support the data collection work being undertaken by the Department for Education in the United Kingdom” states Larry Fruth, PhD, Executive Director/CEO, A4L Community.  “We are delighted that open standards are now recognized as the key to ensuring that seamless and secure data sharing reduces the data burden on the education marketplace, and ultimately assists in the safeguarding of our learners – no matter where they reside!”

This statement of support by UK government educational leadership adds to the Statement of Intent for SIF adoption in Australia made by the National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP) Steering Group.  NSIP developed the Statement of Intent on behalf of Australia’s State and Territory Education Departments and the non-government school sectors’ representative bodies, which agreed to support the SIF Specifications as their preferred method for data exchange in the Australian schools sector.

The full transcript can be found on the UK Department for Education’s website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-bett-show-2016

About the Access 4 Learning Community

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning.  The A4L Community is “Powered by SIF” Specifications as its major technical tool to allow for this management and access simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The Access 4 Learning Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit http://www.A4L.org

About BETT

BETT is Europe’s largest educational technology show, with an estimated 35,000 visitors over 4 days.  The annual event provides an opportunity to experiment with the latest technology, hear from educational leaders in the industry, and meet educators, solution providers and your peers.  For more information, please visit www.bettshow.com