27 Aug 2009
The number of students taking GCSE Information and Communication Technology (ICT) exams fell by 14 per cent this year, the third consecutive year of decline.
Only 40,629 boys and 32,890 girls took the subject this summer, compared to 47,561 and 38,038 respectively last year.
Numbers have fallen by a third (33 per cent) in the past three years, from a total of 109,601 in 2006 to 73,519 this year.
The decline mirrors that seen in Computing and ICT A-levels, which both saw a drop in numbers of more than 20 per cent this year, according to figures from the Joint Council for Qualification.
Education watchdog Ofsted has highlighted the issue as a problem, particularly as the number of women entering IT as a career is still very low. It recommended that schools find ways to engage more pupils with ICT, improve the training of teachers, and ensure ICT is used as a tool in other subjects.
A Computing report in March found that ICT as a subject is now considered irrelevant by many children because ICT is used as a tool in so many other subjects.
And the subject is seen as a soft touch at GCSE and A-level by many employers, according to the CBI, meaning schools encouraged students to take maths instead.
This is nothing new. When I was at school doing my Computer Studies O-level, (26 years ago!) the advice from the IT teacher and the careers people was NOT to choose A-level computer studies, as it was seen as irrelevant, even to the point where it was supposedly even seen as a bad qualification to get onto an IT degree course; as a result we were told to concentrate on Maths and Physics instead. The rationale was that the A-level syllabus was all 'old hat' and that universities preferred students who had not been indoctrinated with 'old ideas' And this was from a school which was using a "Research Machines 380z" as the state of the art! I did however have a look recently around a modern comprehensive (our kids are growing up) and I was horrified at the IT teaching; the class was full of kids bored out of their skulls being forced to plan costs for a picnic using Microsoft Excel. There was no programming taught!
Posted by: nick 19 Aug 2010
Do the statistics take into consideration students entered for other examinations other than GCSE ICT, for example DiDA?
The current ICT syllabuses in the main incorporate tasks which only really require a general ICT skills, which are probably duplicated within other subject areas. In fact they are mainly office ICT skills. Why not change the syllabuses to include higher order ICT and Computing skills, which would be more interesting and challenging to the students. These could include practical hardware tasks, similar to the CISCO IT Essentials course, and some programming tasks. These are the skills I believe that the industry requires, not the current 'office' skills which everyone should possess these days as a matter of course.
Posted by: H. Marshall 02 Sep 2009
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