In January, I reported my views on Sir Jim Rose’s interim report on the primary curriculum in The 3Rs…or chocolate? The Rose Report says you can have your cake and eat it too! I defended Sir Jim then, particularly against accusations that he was planning to get rid of subjects in favour of silly themes such as “chocolate” which might have touched on science, history, geography and even modern languages. Sir Jim this week tabled his final report. In it, he set out the tripartite core of the new primary curriculum: literacy, numeracy and [drumroll]….ICT. Wait! Are you sure you got that right, Snowdon? Did you read that correctly? Surely other subjects would come far ahead of ICT — science perhaps, or modern languages or geography or history?
Sir Jim couldn’t be clearer. ICT has pride of place alongside literacy and numeracy as “foundational knowledge, skills and understanding of the primary curriculum”. No one will dispute the importance of English language skills and mathematical acumen at a time when even relatively few university graduates seem to possess the knowledge and skills necessary to write a coherent business letter or perform simple computations such as the percentage change between two numbers. The prominence of ICT as a pillar of primary education, however, can only mean less time spent on literacy and numeracy and less time exposing children to subjects which they might not otherwise encounter and which benefit greatly from good teaching. According to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2007, 95% of Year 5 children in England had a computer at home and 86% had internet access at home. My guess is that most of these kids have the means and interest in computers to figure this stuff out outside of the classroom. My further guess is that they know more about ICT than Sir Jim himself. But science? French? Latin? History? Geography? I bet very few of the same children have the inclination and the means to learn these other subjects in the same way on their own. I’ll put money on even fewer developing a lifelong interest in these subjects without a great teacher to spark the initial excitement.
I defended you in January, Sir Jim, but this time you’ve really goofed.
Snowdon on Schools 