Digital Literacy Campaign continues

Earlier this month, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, announced that the existing ICT curriculum should be discontinued from September 2012. Speaking at the British Educational Training and Technology Show (BETT), he said that “By withdrawing the Programme of Study, we're giving schools and teachers freedom over what and how to teach; revolutionising ICT as we know it.” The Department for Education has now launched a public consultation on this proposal, which will close on 11 April 2012.

“The Department for Education is opening a consultation on withdrawing the existing National Curriculum Programme of Study for ICT from September this year. Technology in schools will no longer be micromanaged by Whitehall. By withdrawing the Programme of Study, we're giving schools and teachers freedom over what and how to teach; revolutionising ICT as we know it.”

It is envisaged that the current curriculum will be replaced by an "open source" curriculum designed with the help of universities and industry.

The Department for Education has now launched a public consultation on that proposal. The consultation will run for 12 weeks, and will close on 11 April 2012. The full proposal and details of how to respond to the consultation can be viewed at www.education.gov.uk/consultations

There has been growing concern regarding the ICT curriculum in schools. Organisations such as Computing at School (CAS) have worked closely with members and industry to develop resources for the computing curriculum. Alongside this new GCSEs are being developed by awarding bodies.

Edexcel will be launching ‘next generation’ GCSE Computing Science for first teaching in September 2012, and OCR are launching their Computing GCSE.