Scrapping ICT GCSE 'was a mistake' finds education and IT skills report

Should have been kept alongside new coding-focused qualification argues CREST paper

A new report on the UK government's November 2015 decision to scrap ICT at GCSE and A-Level has collected opinions arguing that scrapping basic ICT was "a mistake" and that the education system would be best served with qualifications to allow both specialised, coding-based knowledge and the wider level of accessibility the original ICT studies allowed.

As of 2016, computer science will replace ICT at GCSE. The paper, which looks into the effectiveness of this strategy, has been published by CREST, a "not-for-profit accreditation body representing the technical information security industry".

"Despite the increasing popularity of the computer science GCSE - a 50 per cent increase between 2015 and 2016 - ICT currently has three times more entries, and the examination boards are not confident that when ICT ceases to exist, that students will migrate to computer science," says the report.

"Although both subjects are about technology, they are fundamentally different. Whereas computer science focuses on the inner-workings and programming of a computer, ICT is about how best to employ the technology for business needs."

Of further concern, it alleges, is that ICT had "a fairly equal balance of boys and girls sitting the examination" whereas computer science "has always attracted more boys".

The Chase secondary school in Malvern has been found to have males accounting for 85 per cent of computer science students.

There is also suggestion, according to qualification manager at examination board AQA Steven Kenny, that "many schools were jumping ship and choosing to offer the computer science GCSE rather than ICT, because the new computer science GCSE is regarded more highly due to its English Baccalaureate (EBacc) status."

Obviously, this suggests that schools were changing qualification not because of the content of the course, but more because of the all-too-important bottom line of league tables and results.

"Getting rid of the ICT GCSE was a mistake," added John Palmer, faculty leader for IT, computing and business at The Chase.

"I understand that we need more students studying computer science, but for the students that don't want careers that will involve writing code or understanding how to write code, they still need a quality technological education.

"It needed rethinking, not chucking away completely."

Another statement echoing this view came from Ian Glover, president of CREST itself, who argued that the "issue with ICT GCSE was that it was seen as a being a very Microsoft-centred syllabus" - i.e. with too much focus on Office and its various parts.

"But this could have been fixed. Not all young people need to understand how computers work or want a career in IT, but industry needs these basic skills."

However, Glover concedes that the ICT GCSE is a "good alternative" for students who "do not want a career in IT" as it still provides a "pathway" to the right knowledge.

Computing heard similar criticism of the new proposals back in 2013 from Joanna Poplawska of The Corporate IT Forum's Education and Skills Commission, who called the measures ""too focused on the development side of computing".