Facebook, Microsoft and BCS back government funding for computer science teaching
Education Minister Elizabeth Truss announces more than £2 million of funding so the best computing teachers can help train thousands more teachers.
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Education Minister Elizabeth Truss today announced more than £2 million of funding so the best computing teachers can help train thousands more to teach the rigorous new curriculum.
The funding will allow BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, to recruit 400 master teachers in computer science over the next 2 years, by building on its existing network of excellence in teaching computer science (NoE).
Each master teacher will pass on their skills and subject knowledge to 40 schools - so that computing teachers in 16,000 primary and secondary schools will be in position to deliver the computer science element of the new computing curriculum and the new computer science GCSE. This continuous professional development programme will enhance the preparations that schools will already be making so they can deliver the new curriculum.
Computing (previously ICT) will remain a statutory subject for all pupils in primary and secondary school. The draft curriculum has a strong emphasis on the principles of computer science and practical programming, including algorithms, coding and hardware. Computer science will be included as a science option for the English Baccalaureate from January 2014.
Elizabeth Truss made the announcement at an event co-hosted by Facebook and the Gates Foundation, the charitable organisation run by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda.
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... (DfE - 24 April)