School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme

Discussion in 'News' started by GiddyG, Jan 12, 2012.

  1. GiddyG

    GiddyG Terabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Jan 12, 2012 #1

    School ICT to be replaced by computer science programme



    The current information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum in England's schools is a "mess" and must be radically revamped, the education secretary has announced.

    From September it will be replaced by a flexible curriculum in computer science and programming, designed with the help of universities and industry.

    Michael Gove called the current ICT curriculum "demotivating and dull".

    He will begin a consultation next week on the new computing curriculum.

    He said this would create young people "able to work at the forefront of technological change".

    Full Story here
     
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Comments

    1. Kitkatninja
      Kitkatninja
      According to the news portion of BBC's Breakfast 2 or 3 days ago, last year there were either 18,000 or 14,000 newly qualified teachers:

      1. Out of that amount there were only 3 that had a Computing/Computer Science degrees and
      2. Only approx 450 of the above number had any further training courses in IT.

      Alot of teachers (not all mind you) that teach ICT in schools are either business or math teachers, to get them up to scratch in time for the next academic and actually deliver a great course, not to mention the investment of relevant hardware and software and support from the IT Teams, may be unreasonable.

      It should have been earmarked, imo, to come into force in 2013 instead of this September.
      Jan 12, 2012
      #2
    2. GiddyG
      GiddyG
      To be honest, my 12 year old is finding ICT fun. He thoroughly enjoys doing presentations in PowerPoint and he can be found messing about in at at home now too.

      What I'm saying, I suppose, is by all means harden the thing up, but don;t just dump everything the kids are doing now and drop them into coding. I'd want to see levels, from basic Office-type stuff, networking, coding, web design and so on. Kids then get a good flavour of IT, and can begin to judge what might float their boat going forward.

      Some kids may not want to code, just like some don't want to do applied maths.
      Jan 14, 2012
      #3
    3. soundian
      soundian
      I agree.
      There are quite a few skills that are necessary for the vast majority of the working population (word, email, internet browsers for example) and some that are useful for a lot of people (spreadsheets, powerpoint etc). These should be part of an ICT foundation course taught to everyone.
      Jan 14, 2012
      #4

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