Gove promises 'more rigorous and interesting' ICT curriculum that 'captures the imagination of girls'

'I fully recognise that too few girls study ICT or computing' says education minister

Education secretary Michael Gove has told Computing that he recognises that not enough girls study IT as a school subject, and has vowed that the new national curriculum will present "a more rigorous and interesting subject which captures the imagination of girls as well as boys".

In an exclusive interview with Computing, the minister for education said:

"I fully recognise that too few girls study ICT or computing, and I agree with Dame Wendy Hall, a computer scientist whose work influenced the development of the worldwide web, that girls have been put off partly by the old curriculum, which dumbed down computing to IT literacy.

"Wendy put it last year, ‘They think that if they study computing they are going to become secretaries'," said Gove.

He added: "So a large part of the solution is, as we have proposed, a more rigorous and interesting subject that captures the imagination of girls as well as boys, and does so earlier in their education to have most impact on their later choices."

Earlier this year, Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Chi Onwurah, described the lack of women in ICT as "a scandal which shames our country", stating that sectors such as the UK's burgeoning digital entertainment industry are "stuck in the dark ages when it comes to gender balance".

While the Department for Education is still reluctant to suggest specific programming languages or software packages to teach children, other organisations are less reticent. For example, Jane Richardson, director for EMEA at Oracle Academy, told Computing how the academy's Alice environment uses storytelling, 3D graphics and a drag and drop interface to teach Java skills, adding that this has proved particularly popular with girls.

Richardson said that Oracle would be "happy" to discuss its progress with the government or any exam boards looking for specific IT education resources that may help girls get into coding at an early age.