Write a critique of the national curriculum and the ICT national curriculum.

Include a critique of current and future ICT curriculum change The national curriculum is a set of standards that primary and secondary schools have to abide to. The National curriculum was introduced by the education reform act in 1988 whereby schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had to deliver standardised education across all subjects which enabled schools to assess pupils accurately and fairly. With the national curriculum in place, it enabled schools to set targets across subjects to measure students progress from year to year. The department of education and science set four purposes within the national curriculum. The first was to introduce entitlement for pupils to a broad and balanced curriculum, the second was to set a standard for pupil attainment and to support school accountability, the third was to improve continuity and coherence within the national curriculum and the fourth was to aid public understanding of the work of schools. IT (Information Technology) was introduced to the national curriculum as a non core subject in 1989. ICT is a relatively new addition to schools curriculums which was introduced in 1999. According to Kennewell, Parkinson and Tanner (2003 p4), ICTs purpose in the curriculum is to use a range of tools and techniques relating to computer based hardware and software, to communications including both directed and broadcast, to information sources such as CD-ROM and the internet. Kennewell, Parkinson and Tanner (2004 p4) also highlight the pedagogical aims of ICT and how ICT prepares students for everyday lives. ICT as a subject hasnt really developed like technology, as technology has enhanced rapidly through the years, ICT within schools has very much stayed the same. In January 2012, Education Secretary Michael Gove announced that ICT would be scrapped and Computer Science would take its place, meaning that students would focus more on the creative side of IT, the programming side etc and move away from things covered in ICT such as databases and how to use spreadsheets. Schools still teach many aspects of digital literacy however, the majority of students are digitally literate today and the national curriculum is trying to move away from basic digital literacy skills that are still taught. There are pros and cons to the current ICT national curriculum, many parts of the ICT curriculum are dated and havent been updated since the curriculum was first introduced. Teachers who are teaching ICT have not always studied in this area, teaching basic areas of ICT such as spreadsheets, databases and so on are ok, but many things that are covered in the curriculum will not be used in students everyday lives. Many employers such as IBM and Microsoft have raised concerns over the last 2 years in reference to the national curriculum and what is taught in ICT. The number of students studying ICT in the last few years has dropped as many find what is taught not relevant. Employers are looking for students to study skills they can use once they finish secondary school. All students need to be computer literate these days, and schools are trying to use ICT across as many subjects as possible. Students who leave school need to have a good knowledge of computing whether they are going to become a doctor, accountant or even a teacher.

In January, Michael Gove highlighted some major flaws with the current ICT curriculum and said that the school system has not prepared children for this new world. He mentioned that over the last decade that people had left school without even the basic skills they need to get a job. If students could leave school today having covered some programming, design methodologies and understand other key aspects of computer science, it would give them so many more opportunities going into the workplace today. As Michael Gove mentioned in his speeches, and from various articles that have been written about how ICT may change within schools, teachers have been left unsure of what to expect, many of those teachers who may not be able to teach many aspects of computer science if this is introduced. From September 2012, schools have had the options of opting out of teaching ICT, or they can change the curriculum to how they see fit. Schools with experience computer science and ICT teachers may change the curriculum until the new ICT and Computer Science program comes in to play in 2014. Some schools may heavily focus on teaching their students more computer science based topics however, some schools may opt out from teaching ICT overall, until the changes come into play. There are many pros of the ICT national curriculum focusing more towards computer science, ICT that is taught in schools today can be boring and monotonous. Computer Science teachers who can bring ICT to life within schools will really encourage students to study more about this subject, if students can be taught how to understand and write basic code and see what this can do, many more students may opt to studying ICT. As many global technology organisations are now working with educational organisations in improving ICT within schools, as the ICT program develops and possibly heads more towards computer science, major technology companies such as IBM, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung will continue to invest in developing educational programs as they will benefit when the students later go into the workplace. Schools that have more up to date ICT resources have achieved better results than schools with poor ICT resources, this was identified on inspections throughout various schools. Normally, it is the responsibility of the ICT leader/head of department to order IT equipment in schools, if the people teaching ICT and running the department have a good understanding of ICT, and if the school has enough money in the budget, schools will achieve better results. Schools that do not have the budgets for up to date computing equipment may benefit from large organisations providing this for them or helping towards the cost, if the computer science programs are introduced and the organisation can see a benefit, schools without large budgets for modern IT equipment benefit. ICT has been known to enhance the quality of education in many ways, it can increase students motivation and engagement, this can be relevant to many subjects if ICT is used cross curricula, and if teachers have been trained to get the most out of their ICT facilities, they can promote a better learning environment by using many more sources. If the ICT program is changed in 2014 and has more computer science in it than now, and if a computer science program is introduced alongside the ICT program, this will provide students with skills that employers require and keep the subject up to date.

References http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00201864/harmful-ict-curriculum-set-to-bedropped-this-september-to-make-way-for-rigorous-computer-science http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/a00199693/use-of-ict http://www.education.gov.uk/vocabularies/educationtermsandtags/125 https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/NCRExpert%20Panel%20Report.pdf http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmchilsch/344/34405.htm https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/QCA-99-457.pdf http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00201864/harmful-ict-curriculum-set-to-bedropped-this-september-to-make-way-for-rigorous-computer-scienc http://ict-adv-disadv.blogspot.co.uk/