Who Are the Real Computer Nerds?

Teachers are struggling to deliver the computing curriculum, says the chief of the professional body chosen by the government to leads its reforms.

Let's face it, the DfE will never admit that it has ever made a mistake. When it says there have been 15,000 hours of training for teachers to learn Computer Science, that averages out at less than one hour per school over all England's schools. Just about enough time for the trainer to say "good morning everyone". 

So we will have thousands of ICT teachers who will not be able to teach Computer Science, and at the same time they will not be allowed to teach GCSE or A Level ICT, a subject which is several times more popular with students than Computer Science.

You could not make this up!

But then the DfE thinks anyone can teach. No qualifications are required to be a teacher. So how hard can it be to teach Computer Science? You only need degree level Computing to teach it so obviously anyone can teach it.

As for the BCS. These are the nerds who advise the DfE. Of course they believe everyone loves Computer Science and it is easy to pick up.

I have an idea. Why doesn't the DfE start doing some genuine consultation for a change and ask for feedback from working teachers before they embark on yet more ideas based on feedback from a few SPADs.

One things is for sure at the end of all this. It will be the teachers' fault that they cannot teach Computer Science because the government did its bit by putting in a whole £1.5 million per year for 3 years for training! Wow!

Given the slagging off the profession has had for 5 years, and the low pay, anyone who has degree level Computing is hardly likely to go and be a school teacher. 

(A 3 year Computing degree needs about 5000 hours of study, so the government has provided enough training budget to train the equivalent of 3 teachers for 8,000,000 school students. Yes, that sounds like enough Nicky Morgan. Now let's get all those Design and Technology teachers who will be redundant, teaching some French and Spanish because we have made MFL compulsory too.)