They are getting rid of ICT GCSE and replacing it with computing or something.
UKIP move up to third in polls....
- Thread starter spudbynight
- Start date
They are getting rid of ICT GCSE and replacing it with computing or something.
Even if applying through the immigration channels, you need to already be literate in either English or French to qualify for immigration into Canada.
You can check the self assessment test here for immigrating to Canada. With an undergraduate degree, maximum fluency points in one language, and the maximum specified work experience required, you only just pass with 68 points from a maximum of 100, with 67 points required to pass to immigrate to Canada as a skilled worker.
To get into the UK you dont need any of that. Zero education and fluency in any of the British languages and you can still get in without a problem through normal immigration.
Which is a good thing. ICT / IT up to GCSE is ridiculously simple and teaches nothing that you shouldnt already know. I would have liked to have been able to study actual computing and programming skills up to GCSE level and beyond, but hardly any schools taught this up to when I was 16, and even after that the only computer based course available to me was useless GNVQ ICT.
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Yes, it's called not filling the country with Europe's dregs of society.
He seems to think that if he renames our poor performing schools as "academies" then we'll all forget that they're a heap of faeces. I actually detest the guy more than the likes of Milliband, Clegg, and Cameron, which is really going some.
Because teachers and unions have long since disconnected with any intent to provide decent education, and are only out there to strong arm the government into making life easy for the under performing teachers. I hope he picks a massive fight with the teaching unions and crushes them.
This is a nice fluff piece on it which broadly highlights the problems, and here's a typical union knee-jerk reaction.
Basically he has "disapplied" the GCSE from the curriculum (meaning teachers no longer have to teach it) and is making the subject more technical. So rather than teaching people how to use IT it will be used to teach people how to create IT. Making it much more of a technical subject with a heavier emphasis on programming etc. So basically making it actually useful and interesting. The aim is for the good schools and organisations ( such as naace) to develop a decent ICT curriculum quickly without relying on the rather glacial rate of change if it was done in a centralised manner.
This is great news for ICT teachers that are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject. However it is somewhat less great if you are an ICT teacher who is less technical or, like too many schools, have no real IT experience. Suddenly you have ICT teachers that are going to have to learn to programme. This sort of rapid change is somewhat unsettling for some so you can see why it would be resisted by less able/experienced teachers and therefore the unions representing them.
Sounds like a great idea...my sons ICT lessons are pretty abysmal tbh....However, the changes will require ICT teachers to be specifically qualified and I suppose that is why the union is kicking up a fuss as it will separate the wheat from the chaff....
Yeah, that's why I want a head on collision between the teachers unions and the rest of the UK. A suitable amount of carnage would perhaps break the union's stranglehold on education and we'd see the UK progress - oh, and get a few thousand bad teachers unemployed too.
Thanks....it sounds like a great idea. I must admit that my sons ICT teacher (not GCSE, he is 13) has not got the faintest idea tbh....my boy is always complaining that he keeps getting stuff wrong. He is actually a history teacher if what another Parent told me is true.
'ICT' is simply abysmal. It doesnt teach any technical or programming skills, its simply an entire course spent learning how to:
- Create a username and password
- Log in to an account
- Learn how to use windows
- Learn how to use microsoft office (80% of the course)
- Learn how to use Google and the internet
Course finished. You are now educated to work an office desk job sat in front of a computer all day. Whoopee!
- Create a username and password
- Log in to an account
- Learn how to use windows
- Learn how to use microsoft office (80% of the course)
- Learn how to use Google and the internet
Course finished. You are now educated to work an office desk job sat in front of a computer all day. Whoopee!
No, being asked to cut costs doesn't mean giving up on any attempt to better educate.
There are plenty of interesting initiatives already coming out of this. Code Club for example is an attempt to teach 10/11 year olds programming in after school club environments (so primary school children). Something I may well volunteer to do at my daughters school once the lesson plans are developed. There is also the Raspberry Pi initiative which is aimed at education and various other initiatives.
Soldato
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You're not helping to break the stereotypical UKIP 'all immigrants are filth' image here (aka racism).
This would have been great if it happened 20 years ago, and actually been a part of the national curriculum as an elective subject choice. Currently its still like we are beyond technically backward when it comes to computing education prior to a degree in Computer Science.
Soldato
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You tell me.
All the more reason to change it now then, instead of moaning about it and waiting another 20 years.....
Soldato
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As for IT GCSE... well, it's sad that there's no actual useful stuff on the curriculum, yes. But one of the joys of IT is that you can use it to learn more about itself. If you want to learn about computing then you can. You don't get a qualification for it but you do get more knowledge than you would anyway. Seems a lot of education is moving that way. All we really need is a system which rewards skill not some basically arbitrary academic ability.
Change costs money, money that schools don't have.
I'm not saying don't change, but people need to take into consideration the fact that our public sector is ill-equipped for it.