Public consultations

There are a couple of public consultation exercises happening at the moment to which community members may wish to respond.

The DfE is inviting views on the future of capital funding for schools, now that many BSF projects have been put on hold for the foreseeable future. There aren't, surprise, surprise, many questions here about IT's place in big educational procurement, but members may still wish to register their views. Be warned that the online response form is not a shining example of web form design, so the attached Word file (I know...) may be of more use if you would like to share your views. I'm happy to collate a collective Open Source Schools response if there's sufficient interest. The closing date is quite soon for this, on Friday 17th September.

With a fair flurry of publicity back at the beginning of August, the Royal Society launched its 18 month study of computing in schools, its importance and its implications for the economic and scientific wellbeing of the UK. The press release speaks of a belief that the 'design and delivery of ICT and computer science curricula in schools is so poor that students' understanding and enjoyment of the subjects is severely limited', which I suspect may strike a chord with many here, who've struggled against the Office training culture now prevalent in many schemes of work and specifications.

The study is chaired by Prof Steve Furber FRS, who was one of the original BBC Micro team :-). He said:

"We are now watching the enthusiasm of the next generation waste away through poorly conceived courses and syllabuses. If we cannot address the problem of how to educate our young people in inspirational and appropriate ways, we risk a future workforce that is totally unskilled and unsuited to tomorrow’s job market.”

... but I'm sure he'll approach the evidence with an open mind.

The call for evidence is now open, until 5th November, see the other attachment. I think it would be worth putting together an Open Source Schools response to this, so I've created a wiki style page so that community members can collaborate there if they wish. Just click the edit tab once you've logged in.