The End of UK School Computing 2

Recently I wrote a post in which I argued that the much trumpeted reboot of computer science in UK schools to replace the mocked ICT qualifications was going to end in tears.

Well, now into my third year of teaching the new Computer Science syllabuses, I am more convinced than ever that it’s all gone horribly wrong. Being a generous soul I give it two more years.

Here are a few problems to mull over:

Raspberry Pi: what a wonderful British Linux machine this is and what a glorious world it has opened … but for whom? The school children it was aimed at? Not at all, the Raspberry Pi Bs are all in a drawer. Pi sales are very healthy indeed but worldwide to hobbyist crusties like me. It’s easy to see why, just look at the syllabuses.

The syllabuses at GCSE and A level are very diverse especially with regard to coursework and assessment. One GCSE syllabus had substantial coding exercises in their exams without any access to an IDE; one has no coursework;  another syllabus had 60% of the final marks as controlled assessment (class-based project work under ‘exam conditions’) one produced a 9-1 GCSE syllabus so difficult  Ist Year undergrads would respect it.

All this is not you may say exactly the end of the world, maybe the lack of consensus is merely unnerving but you can at least pick a syllabus to suit taste and ability. However what follows is more serious.

Few take CompSci at GCSE, AS and A level. At GCSE the numbers rival  those of German GCSE and for those in the business that will tell you all you need to know. Of those few, a fifth are girls. Additionally post 16, most  who start CompSci abandon the subject after taking the AS in Y12 leaving  a very select cohort to be ‘norm referenced’ into grade bands. In other words a good student by any objective criteria may well get a mediocre grade by comparison with uber-geeks.

However you view the above situation it means low numbers of mostly boys take CompSci qualifications. Low numbers mean very high costs. This can be sustained for a few years as a subject is introduced but not long term, budget cuts will see it off.

Finally, there is a teacher shortage in general, a STEM teacher shortage specifically and a dire shortage of CompSci teachers in particular, most of whom in any case are ICT teachers who have been pressed into teaching the most arcane of subjects having been offered a three day Python course. A specialised teacher shortage also translates into a shortage of specialised exam moderators which is death to quality control and so to customer satisfaction.

CompSci is great to teach don't get me wrong, it’s just I don’t think this model will fly. The National Project to create coders rather than MS Office users won’t be achieved this way. This begs the question ‘is there any solution?’

I think, and I think I said this years ago, that we need a technical baccalaureate post 16. An academic artisan a unique UK oxymoron. Maths, Design and Technology and Computing in one qualification worth two current A levels. Until this happens we will be stuck in a groundhog day of ‘more of the same’ post 16 ‘academic’ qualifications, we need more humanities specialists don’t we.