Gove on education

Education secretary Michael Gove explains to Peter Gothard why he believes his new Computing curriculum will produce individuals who are better able to thrive in an increasingly digitised world

What do you believe school children need to learn in ICT lessons to prepare them for the job market?
Michael Gove: No one knows precisely what skills children will need in the future. But almost every career in every industry sector is being transformed by technology - from farming to fashion, manufacturing to music - so all young people in the 21st century will need to be equally comfortable with reading, writing and programming; understanding not just how to work a computer, but how a computer works.

So our new computing curriculum, drawn up with help from Google, Facebook and some of Britain's most talented computer scientists, will help children to understand the logic and laws of the digital world. From five, children will code, create and test computer programmes, and learn how to stay safe online, both at home and at school. From 11, they will learn how to use different programming languages and how to create digital information and content. Because computing is now a core skill, GCSE Computer Science has been included in the English Baccalaureate just like Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

Throughout school, we're funding exciting programmes giving schools the chance to try out and experiment with cutting-edge technology like 3D printers and digital fabrication.

How will you ensure there are enough qualified IT teachers to teach the new Computing curriculum?
It is essential that we attract graduates with the right background into teaching and we are taking significant steps to achieve this. We have launched a bursary scheme for teacher training in computer science, replacing the previous ICT scheme. To accompany this, in January this year BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, launched a scholarship programme. Awards worth £20,000 are given to excellent computer science graduates who are interested in a career in teaching, with the funding provided by the Department for Education.

But it is not just about attracting new teachers into the profession. It is vital that current ICT teachers get the professional development they need to teach the new Computing curriculum effectively. So in April we announced more than £2m in funding over the next two years to enable our best computing teachers to train thousands more to teach the rigorous new curriculum.

This funding will allow BCS to recruit 400 "master teachers" in computer science to build an extensive network that offers training for both existing teachers and new recruits to the profession. Each master teacher will pass on their skills and subject knowledge to 40 schools - meaning that, in total, computing teachers in 16,000 primary and secondary schools will be specially trained to teach demanding new computer science courses.

Do you have any reservations about the growing involvement of corporations like Microsoft and Google in ICT education, or would you like to see more of it?
It is important to be open to advice from world-leading technology companies when consulting on the Computing curriculum, and I am delighted that Microsoft, Google and others have played a role through BCS and the Royal Academy of Engineering in developing it and that they have publicly approved our proposals.

Equally, the new curriculum should not be biased towards the commercial interests of large corporations and we have been careful, for example, to avoid naming specific types of computer hardware, operating systems or programming languages.
It is for schools to decide what teaching resources, tools and systems to deploy. Of course where corporate donations are genuinely charitable, I am sure schools welcome this, and I'm also sure that schools will make choices based on the best interests of their pupils.

What are your thoughts on online learning, and children doing their own study from resources provided by organisations such as MIT? To what extent do such resources have a place in the new UK curriculum?
Technology clearly has the potential to transform education, and I do think that resources such as MIT's OpenCourseWare and other exciting projects, like Khan Academy and Open University's OpenLearn, can add significant value to education. I saw first-hand in Singapore for example how brilliant lessons can be delivered through a mixture of online and teacher-led instruction.

Gove on education

Education secretary Michael Gove explains to Peter Gothard why he believes his new Computing curriculum will produce individuals who are better able to thrive in an increasingly digitised world

But while I am keen that schools embrace the opportunities presented by these advances, it is not for me or for government to wade in to dictate how schools and teachers should use them within the curriculum. I do think that it is important for teachers to have the skills to use technology well, and for schools to learn from innovators in this field. That is why the Department for Education is supporting the National Teaching Schools' new technology group to identify and share good practice. These are outstanding schools with a role in supporting the professional development of leaders and teachers elsewhere.

The IT industry is male-dominated, and girls are very much a minority when it comes to ICT lessons. How do you plan to inspire more girls to study the subject?
I fully recognise that too few girls study ICT or computing, and I agree with Dame Wendy Hall, a computer scientist whose work influenced the development of the worldwide web, that girls have been put off partly by the old curriculum, which dumbed down computing to IT literacy. As Dame Wendy put it last year, "They think that if they study computing they are going to become secretaries". So a large part of the solution is, as we have proposed, a more rigorous and interesting subject that captures the imagination of girls as well as boys, and does so earlier in their education to have most impact on their later choices.

One of the key aims of the new ICT curriculum is to give children a better understanding of computer science. How will it achieve this?
Through studying topics such as computational logic, algorithms and data representation, pupils will obtain insight into how the digital technologies that they use every day actually work, and understand how these technology products result from human ingenuity and rational design processes.

In parallel, pupils will be taught practical skills in writing and refining computer code to create new digital artefacts. Computing is inherently a creative activity, so it is vitally important that pupils have first-hand experiences of using programming languages to create digital products that serve a real purpose.

Our level of ambition here is unashamedly high, but fortunately it has never been easier for schools and pupils to get started with programming - through using low-cost hardware such as the Raspberry Pi and free coding tools like Scratch and Kodu, and drawing on the support of grassroots organisations such as Computing at School, Code Club, Apps for Good and others.

As we have already disapplied the existing ICT curriculum, schools are free to start teaching all or some of the new computing curriculum now if they so choose.

Should it be a mandatory requirement for students to study cyber security?
Children and young people should understand the importance of keeping information secure and know how to guard against threats of online fraud and other types of cyber crime.

We have revised the computing curriculum in the light of advice from experts in this area including the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and Childnet, who specialise in protecting children online. We have set a clear expectation that children will be taught how to use the internet securely, and I welcome the publication of excellent resources for teachers to help them do this, including those from Get Safe Online and e-Skills "Behind the Screen".

@PeterGothard