20 January 2012

Following last week’s announcement by Michael Gove, Education Secretary, at BETT that he plans to change ICT lessons in schools in order to make room for Computer Science, the Department for Education has launched a new consultation to seek views on the proposal to remove the programme of study for ICT from the National Curriculum as of September 2012 with the intention of giving schools the freedom to choose what they teach, be that digital literacy, Computer Science or something in-between.

This new consultation refers to the “submissions to the National Curriculum (NC) review Call for Evidence, where a number of high profile voices, including BCS, Computing at School working group, e-skills UK, Naace and the Royal Society held the current National Curriculum for ICT to be unsatisfactory and argued for more widespread teaching of computer science in secondary schools by making a clear distinction between digital literacy and computing - much like that made between numeracy and mathematics. The importance of digital literacy is not in dispute and some of the skills associated with computer science are included in the existing statutory Programme of Study, but these organisations also believe that there is a case for increasing the opportunities that pupils have to develop higher-order technological knowledge and skills at school.”

In the NC review Call for Evidence, BCS’s response included a draft Computer Science programme of study for ICT produced in collaboration with the Computing At School working group and with input from Microsoft, Google and Cambridge University Computer Science department. This new Computing curriculum is cited in the DfE consultation among the number of successful industry-led or sponsored projects, initiatives and resources for schools.  

The newly published Royal Society report into Computing in School has identified that digital literacy for 5-14 year olds, Information Technology and Computer Science are all important and should be treated separately. However, the report not only highlights the importance of digital literacy for all schoolchildren, but also that Computer Science is a rigorous discipline, like Maths or Physics, that should be provided as an option of further study by all schools.