ICT lessons should be dropped from UK curriculum

IT trade body Intellect wants schools to end ICT as a subject and recommends alternatives

ICT lessons should be dropped from the UK schools curriculum entirely, as the subject is failing both pupils and employers, according to IT trade body Intellect.

Instead, the government should replace ICT with lessons that focus on higher-value computer science skills that embed the use of ICT across every other subject, the trade body advised.

John Hoggard, Intellect's education programme manager, said the current ICT curriculum is failing students and putting them off ICT as a discipline, as it is too focused on teaching pupils how to use a limited number of software packages and does not inspire them to develop more advanced computer science skills.

"Uptake of ICT courses is falling - for example, GCSE courses in ICT show a 57 per cent decline in numbers between 2005 and 2010. And the basic ICT skills being generated by the education system are not meeting the needs of pupils or their potential employers," he said.

Tim Hatch, member of Intellect's Education Group and education and public sector business development manager at Intel, added: "Intel sees other countries, especially emerging markets, evaluating the skills they need and developing curriculums to match to ensure future growth.

"It is vital that we develop our advanced computing, science, technology, engineering and mathematics and basic ICT skills in the UK to ensure we can compete with these emerging economies and this work needs to begin in our schools."