Government bids to make IT more relevant with curriculum revamp

The government plans to revamp the current IT curriculum in schools to stop children from being "bored" by the subject and to give them the skills wanted by employers.

The current IT programme in schools will be withdrawn this September and the consultation for this will begin next week.

The government said it will then reconsider the status of ICT within the school curriculum in 2014.

"Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum," said education secretary Michael Gove in a statement today.

"Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch."

Gove said the IT curriculum will no longer be micro-managed by Whitehall. Teachers will be able to decide how they teach the subject and universities and businesses will be given the opportunities to help design courses and exams.

The government said it recognised that it should look at the school curriculum in a new way and consider how new technological platforms can help create curriculum materials in more creative and collaborative ways than previously.

IT firms and trade bodies have put increasing pressure on the government to change how IT is taught in schools over recent years.

Trade body Intellect is one of the organisations that has been lobbying the government for change, in an attempt to encourage more students to enter the sector.

It recently began campaigning for the government to scrap the IT GCSE altogether so that technology education could be more interlinked with other subjects on the curriculum.

Intellect had argued that this would prepare students for the workplace, where technology is an integral part of business. However, it said it is pleased with the government's current strategy.

"Equipping pupils with real programming and computer science skills is vital to ensuring the future of the UK ICT sector and our whole economy," said chair of Intellect's education group, Richard Hadfield.

"We will continue to push for schools to build students' skills through embedding technology into teaching of all other subjects."