Number of girls in England taking computing GCSE plummets, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/27/number-of-girls-in-england-taking-computing-gcse-plummets-study-finds
Posted by Commercial_321
Number of girls in England taking computing GCSE plummets, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/27/number-of-girls-in-england-taking-computing-gcse-plummets-study-finds
Posted by Commercial_321
16 Comments
What a stupid article. Why are they comparing ICT numbers to Computing numbers, they’re not even remotely related as a subject.
I thought schools had to do PSHE, they should just include computer skills into the curriculum through that.
Because it’s going to be all AI and super maths geniuses soon
> Asked to give their reasons, girls who chose not to study it said they did not enjoy computer science. They also said it did not fit in with their career plans, the research found.
This should surprise no one.
> In contrast, the new computer science GCSE, with its focus on computer theory, coding and programming, is perceived by many pupils as “difficult” when compared with other subjects.
> The report included a series of recommendations calling for urgent reform of the curriculum, better support for computing teachers and a change to the “current narrative around computing to focus beyond male tech entrepreneurs”.
Translation : Make it easier.
The gcse teaches lots of low level stuff really not that useful like von neumann architecture and homework includes manual implementation of sort algorithms. It is very dull and not really vocational. Another problem is how bad the teaching quality is. Local school’s head of computing struggles to attach files on emails or operate the electronic whiteboard…
The problem with computing is that it’s just “really hard maths” .
Unfortunately schools are very bad at teaching maths, which can be understood by anyone but needs the availability of a number of teaching styles and approaches to accommodate all students.
The problem is that ‘IT skills’ does not equal computer science.
Learning how to movie files around on Windows and attach files to emails is NOT computer science.
Very sensible of them. CS job market is awful at the moment. 20 years ago, it was the route to guaranteed riches, but so many people saw that and wanted it, that the number of graduates increased faster than the demand for them, so it has become really hard to break in to.
That’s without even thinking about what AI will have done to computing jobs by the time you graduate.
Quality of Computing edification in secondary schools is mostly shit
When I was at school I was forced to take a GNVQ in IT, so it meant taking an hour or two on most days. Thing is, I knew at the time and even said to the teachers that I had absolutely no interest in it and that it would be a useless waste of time.
The IT I was taught was literally just Microsoft’s Office suite. I could have taught myself in a week what they took two years to “teach” if I had had any interest at all in being an office clerk.
Given what the tech job market sounds like this is probably a wise move.
Its not a massive surprise, really. It is almost a vocational course now, rather than a foundational one and with all the yammer about AI taking jobs and vast swathes of layoffs in tech, of course people are going to swerve it.
Absolutely crazy and is systematic of society enforced gender roles and lack of decent teachers and education systems. Women often make as good or better coders and engineers than men. I come from a family of third generation engineers women and men. So how backward this government in the past 13 odd years has taken. It’s like living in the 70’s again, so sad.
In today’s world it should be one of the main things kids learn, they’re going to spend their lives on computers in one form or another.
Oh look, inherent differences between boys and girls.
You can’t force equality or specify exact numbers of X to engage in a subject.
Girls by and large dont want to do computing or brick laying. Boys by and large dont want to nursing.
Its not sexism, when given free choice genders gravitate to what they like
ICT in schools has been dumbed down so much. My son and I found a pc in a skip and rebuilt it. It was while he was in primary. He’s now a mid level network engineer
>In contrast, the new computer science GCSE, with its focus on computer theory, coding and programming, is perceived by many pupils as “difficult” when compared with other subjects.
There’s many facets to comp sci which can be picked apart and taught in many different ways and lessen the overhead of learning another abstract subject. Some people have innate knack, others don’t but there’s always a way of lowering the bar and making it accessible so everyone gets a fair chance. It also helps that you have teachers who can actually teach comp sci.