Curriculum and Assessment Review

The Department for Education have started a review of the curriculum and assessment system in schools. You have until 22 November if you want to respond. Reviews of the national curriculum do not come around very often so this is a rare opportunity to influence the direction of the education system.

Before we beat ourselves up, I should say that every country I have ever been to tells me about their own struggles with devising a curriculum that works for the tech sector. There are too many different views on what the curriculum should look like, but the main problem is that employers often have unrealistic expectations. School leavers wont be instantly 100% productive engineers. The curriculum cannot change every year to keep up with the latest tech trend as courses are multi-year, teacher training cannot keep up and neither can assessments. Employers must invest in training. While I think schools in England and across the rest of the UK do a pretty good job, every discussion I have ever had with cyber businesses about skills inevitably turns to a discussion of what is wrong with the curriculum in our schools. And specifically, what’s wrong with the way computing is taught.

I know lots of you say that cyber is broad church and it’s not all about computing. I get that. But let's be honest. You can't do cyber without computing and it's those technical people who our survey data shows are hardest to hire. DSIT data shows that 62% of entrants into the cyber security workforce last year were graduates. 76% of those graduates had studied either cyber security or computer science.

Our industry is dependent on computing skills. But only 13% of all students choose computer science at GCSE vs. at least 25% for other sciences. Only 2.2% of students take Computer Science at A Level compared to between 4.4-8.5% for the other sciences. And only about 20% of these students are female. The Department for Education consultation illustrates the challenge in the documents published alongside the review and I have included below some of the data points they have published.

So what might we hear from the cyber sector?

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Disclaimer:? What follows is personal to me and not an official view! Afterall as a parent, as someone who has worked in this field a fair while, and someone who cares about this issue, I have my own views!

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The review poses a number of questions:

1.??????? ?General views on curriculum

I think there is consensus that in England, Computing, as a subject choice, lacks kudos in our schools. There are mandatory subjects (Maths, English, Science, but not Computer Science). Then there are humanities (History, Geography, R.E.) and most schools encourage a second language (French, German and Spanish in the main). And then the fun subjects to broaden horizons. Look at the data published alongside the curriculum review and see Computing sits alongside Music, PE, Art, Media studies and Drama. Computing is always positioned as something you can choose if you have space once you have chosen everything else. A hobby at best?

To try and tackle this problem we have the English Baccalaureate, giving computing equal status to the other sciences. This, however, fails to change the way the subject is presented. Computing needs to be properly integrated into the other sciences, in curriculum and in the culture of school leadership or it will always be a niche sport.

Computing should also be presented in statistics and performance tables alongside other sciences. That is where it belongs. Placing it anywhere else reinforces the old culture we are trying to move away from. It is as important.

2.??????? Social justice and inclusion

The fact is that nearly all girls drop Computing at age 14. There is data that shows that when girls choose the subject, they outperform boys. They are also more likely to choose Computing when in an all-girls school. We have invested heavily in trying to address the gender imbalance in Computing and have success but those improvements do not scale and are not sustained. Worryingly, I hear anecdotal stories about discrimination, bullying and unsupportive teaching environments. I don’t think the curriculum is to blame for the gender imbalance but wider issues are at play. If Computing was better blended into the rest of the curriculum with the right kudos for studying it, then I am sure better inclusion outcomes would follow.

3.???????Ensuring an excellent foundation in maths and English

Still too many people fail at maths, stunting their future academic potential and turning them off alternative routes to tech careers. I have spoken to so many people in Further Education Colleges who have students in a circle of despair over this. The maths curriculum could better inspire young people through practical application and develop computational thinking skills. We need to keep doors open, especially at such a young age.

4.???????Curriculum and qualification content

The content of the Computing curriculum needs to develop the skills that tech employers value. There is an emphasis on programming, which while important, should not be so dominant. Every tech employer describes their ideal candidate differently, but I think there is a core set of competencies:

• Data skills. The ability to understand, construct, refine and interrogate data sets and be able to draw out patterns and conclusions (within tables, charts, spreadsheets, and databases etc.)
• Programming. Knowledge of the programming principles, concepts, and methods, for how a computation or algorithm is expressed.
• Systems and Connectivity. Knowledge of the fundamentals of operating systems, networks and cyber security concepts.
• Usability. Awareness of how different users interact and experience systems.
• Complementary Skills. Communication, collaboration and creativity.

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As much as I’d like everyone to study Computing throughout their education, the curriculum also needs to ensure that everyone has wider digital skills. The last time the curriculum was reformed in England we scrapped ICT GCSE and replaced it with Computing GCSE. ICT had mass participation and gender parity but this has been lost. I think there is a case for considering reintroducing ICT and offering both ICT and Computing. One model to consider is the way this subject is managed in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland GCSE Digital Technology specification allows students to choose either Route A: Multimedia or Route B: Programming. Based on this, the qualification they achieve is either GCSE Digital Technology (Multimedia) or GCSE Digital Technology (Programming), with the former being closer England’s now scrapped GCSE ICT and the latter being closer to England’s GCSE Computing. In Northern Ireland they have proved there is a market for both, and I have spoken to many teachers who rave about it.

5.???????A broad and balanced curriculum

Post 16 the curriculum is narrow with most students studying just 3 subjects. There are ways to offer more breadth and the Cyber Security Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is a bolt-on, providing up to 28 UCAS points that an increasing number of students are choosing. But these extras are not enough.

To prepare the UK’s future workforce for the demands of the coming decades, likely to be shaped by technologies such as AI, the post 16 curriculum needs to reflect the central role of computing. Computational and digital skills need to be considered as core content for all, but there are many ways this could be delivered. Whether embedded into every subject, or provided for all as top-up enrichment, there should be a digital strand woven into the educational experience of everyone.

6.???????Assessment and accountability

Computing skills are currently assessed without a computer. Online assessments should be considered for both coursework and examination. At the moment coursework is printed out for teachers to mark leading to a high workload. If there was a mechanism to assess work developed online this could save teachers significant time whilst also supporting students’ practical skills as they need to demonstrate their skills rather than describe them.

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If you are still reading you must be pretty passionate about this subject so I hope you’ll respond to the consultation. There is much to discuss.