ICT curriculum needs rethink

In response to Michael Gove’s announcement today that the current ICT curriculum will be scrapped from this September, Brian Lightman said:

“ASCL welcomes Michael Gove’s belated recognition that a curriculum for the 21st century needs to include technology. ICT skills are crucially important in almost every walk of life and the curriculum needs to be flexible enough to adapt to the rapid pace of change. Teachers also need access to high quality training and support in order to keep up to date.

“Nevertheless school leaders are becoming increasingly frustrated by the stream of contradictory and seemingly ad hoc announcements about the curriculum and qualifications. We have only just heard that changes resulting from the National Curriculum review will be postponed until September 2014. Now we are told that the ICT curriculum will change from this September, which is a completely unrealistic timescale for awarding bodies and schools.

“Many schools have introduced innovative ICT courses which grab pupils’ imagination and this best practice needs to be shared. Most  important now is that young people have the ability to use new technologies intelligently and develop media literacy, such as selecting and critically analysing information. These skills need to be built into the whole curriculum and not just discrete ICT lessons. For some, a focus on programming and developing applications will be important and appropriate but this should not a ‘one size fits all’ solution for everyone.”

11 January 2012