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Lack of Teacher Training Hampers UK Programming Education

Posted by Soulskill on from the queue-up-codecademy-and-call-it-a-day dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The UK government recently introduced a new computer curriculum to the school system in order to get more kids into programming. Unfortunately, they're running into a serious problem: one-third of the secondary schools tasked with teaching these programs have not spent any money training their teachers on the requisite knowledge and technology. The government has provided £4.5 million for this training, and a number of schools have spent their share and more. But it's clearly not filtering down to every school, and that harms the children enrolled in these schools.

1 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Blaming the symptom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This phenomenon is occurring outside of the U.K. as well. You may be blaming the symptom. The problem is that anyone worth their salt can get a much more lucrative job in IT. How do I know this? I train IT instructors for schools.

    The pattern is always the same:

    1) School needs IT instructor yet nobody applies.
    2) School fills position with non-qualified person.
    3) I train person.
    4) Person earns certifications / programming skills.
    5) Person leaves teaching for IT industry.

    Not a single student of mine has entered the teaching profession to my knowledge, and I would not recommend the profession as it is often blamed for societies woes. Check with the colleges. Students are not enrolling to become teachers.

    So why do I stay? I am at the top of the teaching pay scale with full benefits. Also, if I leave retirement is lost. Finally, my employer lets me work on the side and in the summer.

    So to answer the question, "Why aren't there more qualified IT instructors?" The good ones quit.