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Labour needs to get coding

August 1, 2012 4:14 pm

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Here are some shocking stats on our skills gap in need of a solid solution – despite being home to the most digitally innovative industries in the world and ‘Tech City’ London’s schools are currently failing to produce Computer Science students in enough numbers to fill the needs of universities, hi tech and creative businesses who have found their home here.

Department for Education statistics illustrate the poor take up of Computing and Computer Studies in the capital’s schools, with only 382 students deciding to take Computing/Computer Studies at A-level (out of over 98,000 A-levels entered).

I know it’s the Olympic Year but we might creating problems for ourselves if more students are applying (as they are now) to take PE than Computing at A-level.

The ‘digital corridor’ between Westminster (Soho)-Camden (King’s Cross)-Islington-Hackney, home to ‘Tech City’ and world-leading universities, advertising firms, visual effects, film, music and video games companies, straddles London boroughs in which there are currently only 15 students studying Computing A-level.

This is the same number as Southend.

The table below shows numbers of A-level entries in 2010/11, out of total A-level entries.

(‘x’ denotes data suppressed, less than 5).

From the country that created the BBC Micro in the 1980s we’ve got to ask ourselves: where did we go wrong and why are the figures so shockingly low?

A combination of factors are at play:

  • At GCSE the ICT curriculum taught – focusing almost entirely on office skills – is a turn off to those who want to know how computer actually work.
  • London schools currently lack enough qualified teachers to teach even the existing ICT courses, let alone a new Computer Science course.  Only 29% of teachers are qualified to teach ICT today in inner London schools and 45% in outer London.
  • There are also serious questions about whether current computing courses are rigorous or adaptable enough.
  • The fragmented nature of London education means that each academy and each of the 32 boroughs will have a different approach – or no approach at all.

Both a cause and effect – there is also a massive gender divide – as with all ‘STEM subjects’ – nationally only 7% (241) of Computing A-level students are girls.

Being able to programme computers will be fundamental to the digital age, London won’t be a digital city for Londoners unless schools respond to this call and reform how they teach these crucial skills.

The DfE figures from across the country are also poor.

Our leading hi-tech firms currently source talent from overseas because of skills shortages at home.  That is mainly a failing of our out-of-date education system – from schools through to universities – and it needs to be urgently tackled if we are to remain globally competitive.

Labour in Wales has allowed concerted action to be taken to create a strategy and an infrastructure to support change, with £3m announced in June to help teachers and schools skill up.  London has no such strategy as education is fragmented across 32 London boroughs, and hundreds of new academies – schools which do not have to follow the National Curriculum.

From September 2012 the Department for Education will allow schools to move away from the traditional ‘Programme of Study’ for Information and Communication Technology, giving schools the ability to change what they teach and to innovate – one Gove reform actually welcomed across the board.  This will allow curricula to be refreshed and make room for the fundamental principles of Computer Science to be taught in classrooms.

Where countries have innovated in this field, like Israel after 2000, they adopted a strategic approach because they saw programming and Computer Science as in the national interest.

A hi-tech skills strategy for London means more schools need to be taking up Computer Science at GCSE from September and support to train a new generation of Computer Science teachers.

We must also make sure that these skills are open to all, to help state maintained schools get kids from all backgrounds – and both sexes – into the jobs of the future.

It might seem counter-intuitive at a time when government reforms are decoupling schools and education authorities that councils should have a role in a new area of study – but local government, with its renewed focus on growth and economic innovation and its continuing links with educators and local firms, doesn’t have to be in search of a role to help get schools – and children – coding again.

Theo Blackwell is Cabinet member for Finance in Camden 

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  • http://nhsvault.blogspot.com Richard Blogger

    “At GCSE the ICT curriculum taught – focusing almost entirely on office
    skills – is a turn off to those who want to know how computer actually
    work”

    This is the nub of the issue. School students *should* be able to take a GCSE in office skills – they are needed – but there should be a separate GCSE in programming. And please, make sure that it is programming in languages that make sense: look at the languages that industry uses and teach those. When I was a kid we were taught Pascal, when I got a job as a developer I used C++: why teach me a language that isn’t used commercially?

    • Silcon Drudge

      Why Pascal? It’s easier to understand and teach structured programming with than the more cryptic C++ and standardised and pretty independent of hardware and operating systems. It is freely or cheaply available and runs on pretty much every platform imaginable and the compilers and editors can usually be given to students to take home and use on their own machines. I would imagine trying to introduce children under 18 to programming using C++ would put them off the activity for life! (Pointers anyone?) And which version of C++ would you use in the classroom? ANSI C++? C++0x? C++11?  ISO/IEC standard C++? Microsoft C++/CLI? Embarcadero  C++? There’s loads of different flavours to help programmers do this and that faster or more easily than others and some of them are unbelievably expensive. When I learned programming a lot of it was done in assembly language which gave you a very intimate appreciation of the actual CPU in the computers you were writing applications for; C++ was considered a high level language for pussies.

      Maybe it would be better to teach a programming language that is more hardware and operating system independent like Java (which Imperial College favours) or C#?

      Whatever they use it definitely shouldn’t be C++.

      • http://nhsvault.blogspot.com Richard Blogger

         ”It’s easier to understand and teach structured programming with than the
        more cryptic C++ and standardised and pretty independent of hardware
        and operating systems.”

        …and every company I have worked for (as a developer, or as a trainer) have had the cost of re-training new graduates to write in C++. Part of my career was as a computer trainer, and I can tell you that it was a lucrative business for the training company I worked for!

        Anyway, my point was not that kids should learn C++, it is now a moribund language. I was pointing out that the good intentions of the teaching profession 30 years ago was misguided: they should have taught ANSI C++. Keep to the standards and the teaching will be relevant.

        “Maybe it would be better to teach a programming language that is more
        hardware and operating system independent like Java (which Imperial
        College favours) or C#?”

        If I was designing a course for school students it would be in either Java or C#. Both are fully fledged commercial languages and are free (and the development environments are free). I would want a course to produce something relevant to the students, so I would try and make sure that there was a module on a mobile phone platform – most likely Android, which makes Java the candidate language.

        • MonkeyBot5000

          I’d throw in some web-based languages as well.

          It’s a good way to show how different code running in different places can work together and the design elements of html/css/js could be a good way to get kids interested who think programming is too technical.

          • Dave Postles

             OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) includes an introduction to Python programming (‘Pippy’).  The RPi, of course, runs Debian Linux (or Fedora Linux) as the operating system (OLPC uses Fedora/Sugar).  Here’s the rub: MS is insisting on UEFI bootloader which will introduce more problems for those of us who prefer Linux/Unix distributions.  Some of the OEM SMEs benchtest their products for a few days using Windows.  So, although I ordered kit without an OS, it actually comes with Windows pre-installed.  When OEMs are compelled to install the MS UEFI, we users of GRUB will be presented with a problem.  So now we have Red Hat buying a licence from MS which defeats the purpose of OpenSource.  I hope that the EC will investigate this issue. 

        • Silicon Drudge

          If you want to write phone Apps Java would be the best way to do. I’m not sure if the Mono framework (based on Microsoft’s .NET 3.5) is available for Android and so don’t know if C# can be ported to Android easily. I know that Xamarin have a commercial solution that is supposed to allow this and a free development environment, called MonoDevelop available for download, which I tried but found ridiculously primitive in comparison to Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

          • MonkeyBot5000

            Eclipse would be a good IDE for Android in schools. It’s free and has a plugin with all the tools you need to package an application and sign it. Plus, the tutorials on the Android site are all done with Eclipse.

            I think it costs £20-£25 to sign up as a Google Play developer, but the school could pay that once and use that account to add students’ applications to the store.

          • Silicon Drudge

            Eclipse is good. And kind of big. You can use it with various compliers to write code in several languages Java and C++ being the most popular. I use a nice freebie text editor called Code::Blocks to write simple C++ programs set up to compile and link code using Microsoft software but in the absence of Microsoft the editor could just as well be set up to use a free or open source equivalent like MinGW or similar. For something truly cross-platform there’s Nokia’s open source QT. The combinations and permutations are endless!

        • JoeDM

           The important point is that you learn how to develop an approach to problem solving using logic and attention to detail.  Once you have those disciplines and the basic syntax of a computer language under your belt you can apply the skills to any number of situations or computer languages.   I originally taught Pascal in my A Level lessons.  When I left teaching to enter the real world of systems development I used C and then C++, Powerbuilder, Java and Unix shell script.   The fundamentals are the same.

      • Daniel Speight

        Maybe just start kids on C. Does it still exist? I guess it’s just considered a sub-set of C++ now.

        • TomFairfax

           For safety based systems, and in line with ISO 26262, C++ is a non-starter. C or the MISRA C sub-set are acceptable.

        • Silicon Drudge

          Oh, yes. C is very much still around. Most of the UNIX operating system was written in C which was why the language was invented in the first place. Many programmers prefer C to C++ and consider it more “elegant” although in my opinion C is harder than C++ because its much more flexible and so makes the programmer work harder to cover more bases in order to avoid errors than the strongly typed object oriented C++.

    • JoeDM

       Well learning Pascal is/was an excellent way into learning programming.   It probably made you a much better C++ developer.

  • externalities

    Even GCSE level is too late. When kids in pre-school are playing with iPads, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to teach (some) children at age 12 what a programming language is or how the heck the internet works. An introduction that inspires and enables kids to teach themselves and play around is most important. Coding also needs to cross-over into other subjects – showing kids that they can write scripts to solve maths problems; control their tech creations; or make websites to present information in other subjects.

    “We must also make sure that these skills are open to all, to help state
    maintained schools get kids from all backgrounds – and both sexes – into
    the jobs of the future.” – As long as they’re from London? ;)

  • Quiet_Sceptic

    I’m not sure it is quite as bad as the head-line report – in many technical degree disciplines students do not hold a ‘pure’ A-level for that subject. Look at engineering – most students have physics and maths A-level but I doubt you’d find many with an A-level in an engineering discipline.

    In fact for some of the industries you mention, a computer studies background is not necessarily what is required, a good understanding of maths and physics is just as important.

    I think electronic engineering is under-promoted as compared to pure computer science, in the discussion about high-tech industries the focus falls on computing and yet it takes electronic engineers to design the firmware.

    • TomFairfax

       Good points.
      Interstingly when I started in engine control software, the company wouldn’t take people with Computing degrees, just engineering or Physics ones.

      Having said that, we’d all done programming in those degrees, even if, dare I say, it was Pascal and OS9 (which dates me horribly).

      Generally I found being an electronics hardware engineer meant better remuneration than for programmers, and that it’s far easier to export programming jobs to places like India and Romania than hardware ones.

      Also, all hardware engineers need to be able to do some basic coding to check the hardware functions correctly. No software engineer needs to be able to do hardware design.

      ARM after all designs hardware and is easily the countries biggest pure technology firm in revenue terms, and actually started off as a spin off from Acorn who did the BBC Micro.

      • Quiet_Sceptic

        Control software is an interesting example. It is software on the surface but the real intellectual property is the control algorithms and system models sat behind it which requires a knowledge of control theory and mathematics. Same with software for image processing and recognition.

        There’s something similar with modern computer games, no doubt programmers are required for the software but increasingly as important are the artists and animators who create the visual experience.

        I think it shows that to support these high-tech industries it needs a range of skills from across the technical disciplines.

    • Theo Blackwell

      I thought that too, but when you look at what Computer Science university students studied, only 39% took Maths.

  • PeterBarnard

    A computer is just a utility, just like a motor car (and “pure” utilities such as water, gas, electricity or effluent disposal).

    We need a certain number of skilled people to design these utilities, but the “ordinary person” has no real need to know what’s in the guts of these utilities, neither in his (her) personal nor business life.

    What you are saying is that roughly 1 in 250 ‘A’ level students in London are studying Computing. This may (or may not) be sufficient to meet our needs.

    However, as QS remarks below, someone with a good understanding of maths and physics (and maths is all logic and “in the mind”) should not find it difficult to make the transition to computing science.

    • TomFairfax

       I agree about computers being essentially tools.

      However, one area we lead in now due to the 80′s Home Computer boom is in games development.

      The problem was that in 1982 you could do O levels and A levels in Computing in most schools. The problem now is that most schools can’t actually run courses in this subject. It was recently mentioned at a seminar that there is currently no GCSE in Computing.

      At an NMI seminar on Mission Critical Software at Cambridge University a few months ago, there was some time allocated to discuss the Computing At School initiative. There is no doubting that there is a lack of people coming through to replace software or hardware engineers to just maintain numbers let alone to support the increased need for those skills.

      Another way of looking at it, is that RBS is an IT company with a banking licence and they have been actively harming the core IT part of the company and are now only just realising the consequences.

  • JoeDM

     Well it was during those 13 wonderful years of Labour Government that the intellectually rigorous Computer Scicence was replaced by the anodyne Information and Communication Technology A Level courses in our schools.

    I used to teach Comp Sci at A level (and Maths) way back in the past.   Now I’m a systems manager in the City.

  • Amber Star

    Yikes, C & C++, that takes me back a bit! And that stuff is too difficult for young kids, is it not? If you want something that helps teach the underlying approach, which is used ‘commercially’ & which would dovetail with the existing office skills stuff, shouldn’t Visual Basic be considered as a nice stepping stone to actual programming?

  • https://mikestallard.virtualgallery.com/ Mike Stallard

    “We must also make sure that these skills are open to all, to help state maintained schools get kids from all backgrounds – and both sexes – into the jobs of the future.”
    Rubbish!
    It is not up to you or to any government minister or MP to dictate what is going on in “your” schools with “our young people”. It is up to the schools themselves and their parents.
    If the schools were free to innovate and make their own decisions – and I must admit that thanks to you lot they are not  - then they would respond to this very real need very quickly and institute training programmes that meet the need.

    • Dave Postles

       No they wouldn’t because there is a shortage of IT teachers with precisely these skills.

      • https://mikestallard.virtualgallery.com/ Mike Stallard

        By “you lot” I was referring to ALL politicians, not just “the baddies”.

        If – oh boy! – IF we had schools which were a pleasure to teach in and schools where people actually wanted to learn and get on in life, then, believe me, there would be tons of ICT teachers.

    • TomFairfax

       Can you just remind us who brought in the national curriculum, which is clearly the obstacle here.

    • Camdenist

      So, it follows from your argument that there should be be much higher rates of ICT and Computer Science in private schools then – not noticeably.

      Also evidence from Policy Exchange shows that Academies are retreating from ICT, rather than modifying what they teach. 

  • hp

    Odd that there is no mention of the Raspberry PI in the article or comments.

    • TomFairfax

       Also no mention of the CIS initiative to get computing back into schools.

      I suspect the reason is that your average Westminster village bod doesn’t actually know anything about them. Anybody who thinks Shoreditch and it’s nontrepreneurs is an example of tech based industry is clearly not posessing a great deal of knowledge on the subject. Basically the Silicon Fen is still the place to go to see real electronics tech firms.

      Interestingly at least one of the major automotive suppliers for Infotainment systems uses Python for writing the test tools to validate the software functionality. Python of course is part of the standard Raspberry Pi Debian distribution.

      So real programming language, on real kit, priced at sub £30 so schools can afford it later this year with a case included. (My lego case currently is more than adequate for me and the children at home.)

      • Theo Blackwell

        CAS network, the work of BCS and informal learning are all part of a wider movement.  The point I was making was consciously London centric, and implied in this is that if you buy Tech City you also need to teach kids something else.  I agree with your last point very much.

        • TomFairfax

           Hi Theo,
          Thank you for taking the time to feedback.
          I don’t buy Tech city currently for a couple of reasons.
          1) None of the outfits has made a profit (i.e. no business case seems necessary therefore no long term future) For instance the Last FM founders were able to sell their loss making idea to someone else to make a loss on.
          2) The media circus around it involving people without a clue being phased by the likes of Google showing an interest. (one of the biggest abusers of others creative Intelectual Property for it’s own ends without payment or even crediting the owner, in effect removing the benefit of creating something in the first place)

          If we take Rory Cellan-Jones for instance. very enthusiastic, which is good. But after all this time you’d think as the BBC’s prime correspondant he’d developed some background knowledge.

          http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/24/educating_rory/

          CAS and Raspberry PI are good, but need to be mentioned when appropriate else they’ll suffocate without the publicity (more of an issue for CAS), and the logical conclusion of your article is that some sort of London-wide Education Authority is needed to provide strategic guidance, but not just on this.

    • Dave Postles

      That’s no doubt because the RPi is not Microsoft, but is OpenSource Debian (supplied) or Fedora (installable).  There are many great teachers out there responding to OpenSource, but the educational establishment is defined by Microsoft.  What proportion of schools use Moodle as their educational platform, an OpenSource CMS, or LibreOffice/OpenOffice for their ICT skills?

      • JoeDM

         Under the last Labour Government it was the policy to encourage schools to buy Windows based kit.   

        See this article on the role of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) in pusing Windows based computers into British schools:   http://www.zdnet.com/uk-govt-open-source-faces-exclusion-in-schools-2061970572/

        • Dave Postles

           Yes, I knew it was New Labour’s predilection – another useless decision.  The same, however, pertains in HE, except for the STEM disciplines where Linux is prevalent because reliable, high-powered computing is vital.

        • Dave Postles

           I only read Linux Format, Linux Magazine and Linux User and Developer, with occasional visits to Distrowatch.  I’m afraid that I am not interested in any other computer magazines. 

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