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Why IT education is bottom of the class

Posted on 7 Nov 2006 at 17:11

In that light, it isn't the schools that bear responsibility, but the exam boards that set the syllabuses. However, there's one line of thinking that claims there's no need to teach programming and the more technical subjects in mainstream education at all, because real aptitude and enthusiasm for computing will prosper without any formal training. "It's long been suspected that some people have a natural aptitude for programming and that most people can't learn to program: between 30 and 60% of every university computer science department's intake fail the first programming course," claimed Saeed Dehnadi and Richard Bornat in a report for the School of Computing at Middlesex University. "Programming teaching is useless for those who are bound to fail and pointless for those who are certain to succeed."

Such thinking might pose interesting questions, but certainly won't plug the yawning skills gap or encourage more young people into the industry. More important, according to experts in almost every stakeholder group, is the desperate need to change the perception of the industry as a fusty club for geeks and nerds. What self-respecting teenager would choose spreadsheets and databases over sports science or media studies?

"A lot of the fun and wonder has been taken out of it [computing] in schools, so getting people to go into higher education is more difficult," said professor Edward Truch of Lancaster University. "There are still really exciting things happening in IT, from the algorithms in Google and MSN Search to game design and mobile phones, but these things aren't taught in schools. Changing the image is vital."

If the image is worrying for the whole industry, the situation is critical among female students. The Joint Council for Qualifications says this year's female intake for A-Level computing amounts to less than one in ten - a shocking statistic in the 21st century. It's not surprising then that the percentage of women in the IT workforce has fallen from 27% in 1996 to 21% today, according to the Office of National Statistics. "Computer courses are, even at an early age, predominantly attended by male students," said Andrew McGettrick from the British Computing Society. "We need to be drawing our IT people from as large a pool as possible, so it's no good eliminating 50% of the population straight away."

Students struggling to cope

As students prepare to make critical decisions on degree courses, computing's image problem is exacerbated by misconceptions. Having been drip-fed a syllabus that's based solely on how to use a computer, students have little understanding of what university-level computer science or software engineering even means.

"It's effectively a whole new subject and people who think it's just advanced spreadsheets are in for a shock - most of them don't know there's an exciting world beyond the humdrum taught in schools. It's crazy because the schools and the employers both hate what the exam processes are doing," says Herbert.

It's inevitably difficult to persuade youngsters choosing career paths that they should dedicate the next three or four years to a subject they've never studied before. The biggest failing of ICT in schools is that even the universities don't think of it as a "proper A-Level" and high-brow colleges discount the subject among applicants.

According to Cambridge University's online prospectus: "To be a realistic applicant, a student will normally need to be offering two traditional academic subjects. For example, mathematics, history and business studies would be an acceptable combination." The list of subjects that offer "less effective preparation" includes information and communication studies, and design and technology.