Following my previous in-depth editorial about the state of computer science education in the UK, I just thought I would bring you news on some development in the area. Brought forward by the folks at (Young) Rewired State, there is now a new petition on the government’s brand new and improved ePetitions website which all UK citizens can sign in order to try to push for change in this area which is just so important for change and innovation in the UK. Launched yesterday, the petition has already amassed 270 signatures and that number is growing – you can make your mark here, but check after the break to find out more about what is going on and why you should take the time to get involved.

The petition has been created by Emma Mulqueeny, director and co-founder of the Rewired State group, based upon the government’s promise that petitions on the site with 100,000 signatures or more will “probably” be debated in Parliament – an important goal if change is to be made to improve curriculums in favour of the teaching of computer science and programming rather than plain and bland ICT, especially in view of Education Minister Michael Gove’s archaic view of the curriculum which tends to reject things entirely that are seen as important today, for instance IT in general in favour of Latin.

So what is the different between mere “ICT” and computer science? ICT is just learning how to use computers: how to format documents in Word, how to search the Web; even how to turn a computer on. Computer science is about programming: through it, young people learn how a computer works, and how to write software for it. Obviously, both parts are important, and essential to our future economy, but as it stands the programming part is effectively being foregone, destroying the potential of this country which has long been renowned for its innovation.

The campaign itself it using the hashtag #yr8istoolate on Twitter – this is because there is some very limited teaching of programming from this point, but in general it is probably too late to inspire young people, and in particular girls, moving them towards an interest in the fundamentals of computing. Children can probably be encouraged to learn about programming more easily at a younger age, and this will create the foundations of an interest for life.

The full petition blurb reads as follows:

Start teaching coding as a part of the curriculum in Yr 5. If it can be introduced as a part of the central curriculum in Year 5, then by the time those kids are drawn up through the education system, there would be far less of a disparity between the sexes – and maybe even an increased number of young people with an ability to manipulate open data, relate to code and challenge each other to design and build the digital products that we have not even begun to imagine. Year 8 is too late, we are losing the female coders and we need this generation to help us code a better country.

What do you think? Do you think this petition is a good way of raising awareness of the issues surrounding teaching in IT and computer science? What do you think the correct couse of action is?

As supporters of this cause, the team here at Silicon Britain would like to support @rewiredstate by suggesting that you should sign the petition and blog about the issues, as well as tweeting about the difference between IT and programming (with the hashtag #ICTvsCS) and about the petition in general (with #yr8istoolate).

About The Author

Tim Rogers

Tim Rogers is the founder and editor of Silicon Britain. He is an 18 year old student studying at University College London, an avid geek and employee of San Francisco startup Taskforce. An dedicated user of Twitter, he tweets under the name @timROGERS.