Government signs up RM for £16m school data deal

VAR to help Department for Education compile school performance data

Reseller RM Education has won a multimillion-pound deal to help the Department for Education (DfE) compile data on schools' performance.

The £15.6m deal is set to last for five years and will see the reseller's Assessment and Data division collect and publish data on schools' and pupils' performance as part of the government's School Performance Data Programme (SPDP).

Four other companies were pipped to the post by RM for the deal, which was broken into two sections.

As part of the first lot, RM will supply services relating to data collection, importation and management while the second will see it maintain a new portal on which the data will be published and presented to the public.

The reseller said its experience in dealing with important data stands it in good stead for the contract.

"RM has many years of experience processing and analysing high-stakes, high-volume education data, including delivering the National Pupil Database Achievement and Attainment Tables for the DfE," it said.

"We are delighted to have been entrusted with this new programme which, by combining ease of access with a broad range of up-to-date statistics, will, we believe, offer unprecedented insights into education in England."