A recent study by the Royal Society have found that the way schools in the UK are teaching Information and Computer Technology is causing less and less pupils to consider this as a subject to pursue. It was found that the number of students sitting the ICT GCSE had fallen by 33% over 3 years and a 33% fall over 6 years in those sitting the ICT A-level. Without a large number of people finishing school and pursuing a career in this subject, the UK is in danger of falling behind the rest of the online world in terms of computer science skills. And with our world becoming increasingly digital in nature, a lack of girth in this area could cause a distinct gap in the number of appropriately skilled workers. Basically, we can’t afford not to have people skilled in the right areas, especially as those without these skills will be left without jobs entirely as they will be ill prepared for the future job market.
What the Royal Society is doing now, is launching another study that will look at exactly how the curriculum can be improved to entice students back to ICT. This will no doubt involve looking at the courses themselves, making them more up-to-date and vocational; they will look at teachers and how they can be better trained and motivated in order to pass on the correct knowledge from a modern and authoritative perspective; and they will look at facilities (which may be a huge stumbling block), including computers, networking infrastructure, software and other digital media. Unfortunately, for all the good intentions and wise foresight in the world there is as much economic head scratching and political fumbling.
There is hope for the future though. How many teenagers today do you know that can use a PC without a second thought? Most of them right? Well I bet that most of them didn’t take ICT class at school and still manage to perform enough online and computer based tasks to get by easily. Computers and the internet are getting faster, more intuitive and less expensive every day too, so over the next couple of decades, learning how to use computers and information technology is only going to get easier.
There’s more to computer sciences than just fixing PC’s. We need web developers, software programmers and web businesses to handle online credit card processing. What the Royal Society does need to do, is entice those with an aptitude for science to take on the highest level of computer science so that these rapid advances in computer technology which are happening right now, have some British stamps on them. Not just for online business and economic reasons but to inspire our youngsters to want to travel down this exciting digital path into the future. Don’t we just need a British Bill Gates, Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg?
Related Posts:
Tags: ICT, programming, technology
