BESA Director General Caroline Wright’s Opening Speech at Bett UK 2026

Read Director General Caroline Wright’s Opening Speech at Bett UK 2026:

Thank you Secretary of State. It is fantastic to welcome you to Bett for a second year running – remaining in post long enough to return to any event is a political rarity nowadays and something many of your predecessors failed to accomplish!

Length of tenure is not necessarily a fair indicator of impact or success of course. Only two Secretaries of State for Education have served in post for more than four years since 1997 – David Blunkett and Michael Gove. And whilst one Education Secretary invested in EdTech, introducing a national agency, BECTA, to help support the implementation of technology in schools, the other abolished it…

Ministerial determination, beats length of tenure hands down in driving improvement in EdTech implementation.  Damian Hinds’ EdTech Strategy of 2019 was the other most impactful EdTech policy success for the Department for Education in the past decade, laying the groundwork for the basic tech infrastructure in schools which has enabled the more visionary plans set out by the Secretary of State today.

It is particularly pertinent then to note, that today Bridget Phillipson has served exactly the same length of time in post, one year, six months and 16 days, as Damian did when he left office.

So, I hope Bridget will be pleased to learn, assuming no Cabinet reshuffle, that by the end of today she will become the seventh longest serving Secretary of State since the New Labour Government came into power in 1997.

I echo the Secretary of State’s call for media literacy and healthy checks and balances on AI, given that the well-known Generative AI engine I used to check the length of Ministerial tenures placed Gavin Williamson  – remember him – at 13th on the list when he is the fourth longest serving Education Secretary this century. Although many of us would probably agree with AI allocating him the ‘unlucky 13th’ position…

Some politicians are best left in the past and, bringing us back to the present day, since the Secretary of State spoke at Bett last year we have seen Government grasp the EdTech mettle firmly. Driving forward innovative initiatives that will help improve the effective use of EdTech in schools. Thanks to the Secretary of State’s personal leadership delivering on her promise at BETT last year the UK is leading the global dialogue on the use of Generative AI in Education.

There has never been a more important time, given current geopolitical events, for Ministers and policy-makers to act to place guard-rails around our schools and learners in order to protect young people and the British Educational Suppliers Association strongly supports the Government’s work in this area.

BESA members sign up to an industry Code of Practice to safeguard and adhere to standards ensuring that schools have access to trusted quality suppliers. These UK-based companies are committed to providing educational products and solutions that are in our national interest, and we welcome the Government’s move to update digital safety standards to ensure other providers also comply and place the best interests of learners at the forefront of their product design and development.

It is increasingly important that the Government encourages and protects our sovereign tech and education supplier capacity so that regardless of geo-political trading turbulence British schools, and schools following the British curriculum around the world, are able to access quality EdTech and educational resources designed and developed with our standards and values at their heart.

It is a challenging time for educators and industry alike but thanks to the strong Ministerial leadership here in the UK, and that of the many International Ministers of Education joining us today as part of the BETT Ministerial Symposium we should feel encouraged by the collaboration, commitment and community spirit of educators and policymakers here at BETT 2026 working together positively through common interest to drive forward improvements to education ambitions and outcomes across the UK and globally.

Thank you and enjoy Bett 2026!