Call for computer science in the National Curriculum

The UK trade body for the video games and interactive entertainment industry, UKIE, has argued for computer science to be taught as a standalone subject in schools.

In its response to the government's National Curriculum Review call for evidence, the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) echoes the recommendation made recently by the Livingstone-Hope Review, which reported a skills gap for the video games and visual effects industries. UKIE describes this gap as, "a threat not just to the future of the video games industry but also to any business that has computer technology at its core; anything from shopping online or creating a major engineering project, to producing the latest video game or designing a jet engine", and that by not having computer science as part of the National Curriculum the UK will, "become a passive user of technology, falling behind the rest of the world".

Recent criticism of the ICT curriculum argues that there is currently too great a focus on learning to use common software packages, such as Excel, rather than developing the computing knowledge and skills required to produce new applications.

In March 2010, a report for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Strategically Important and Vulnerable Subjects, stated that undergraduate uptake of computer science degree courses had fallen from 75,311 to 45,825 in the period between 2002-03 to 2007-08 (see below to download this report).

One suggestion for falling numbers is that young people are poorly informed about the potential for studying computer science at A-level and beyond, in part because they do not experience the subject at school level prior to making post-16 study subjects. However, it should also be noted that A-level computer science is not a usual requirement for entry to undergraduate courses. University entry requirements generally specify mathematics, and may also suggest that potential computer science undergraduates consider study of further mathematics and/or physics.

For more details of the UKIE National Curriculum response, visit their website.