How sad to read how far behind we are in teaching children computing skills (We’re sending analogue children into a digital future, 20 November). In the late 1970s I was one of the first computer studies teachers. Our secondary school started with one microcomputer and 90 pupils taking computer studies as an option subject. The computer was booked solidly from early morning to night-time so pupils could access the exciting new technology for their coursework, which was 100% programming. Pupils of all abilities were totally engaged with the practical side of the course and derived huge satisfaction from even the simplest of programs. It was also unique in providing an outlet for the brightest pupils to stretch themselves, with future Oxbridge students working at projects way beyond the understanding of their teachers.
Then, as the years passed by, came the educational “experts” who decided that learning IT skills (how to use PowerPoint, Word, Excel etc) was the way forward and computer studies courses became a thing of the past. Without a doubt, had computing courses expanded in line with the development of the technology, Britain could have been leading the world, not sitting marvelling at what children in other countries can produce.
Bob Epton
Brigg, Lincolnshire
John Harris addresses an important issue: of course school computer education ought always to have been about much more than PowerPoint.
Forty years ago I was lecturing to civil servants at the now-defunct Civil Service College (abolished by the Tories in 1995) on ICT and systems. Our students were both IT specialists and generalists/fast-streamers. We covered just those topics that John Harris references – logical and structured thinking (in essence, programming), systems analysis and design, project and cost management and implementation.
The title of his piece embodies a further issue. Children – we humans – are analogue, and although the systems we use now and in the future are digital, I contend that we are more easily able to control them through analogue interfaces. A turned knob to control volume has advantages over buttons – the knob shows the setting by its position, and is capable of a delicacy of adjustment that a button cannot easily offer. One of the design lessons that children should be learning is that the command and control and feedback interface is as important as the underlying application; each is useless if the other is ineffective.
Greg Conway
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
Great to see the Guardian raising the cause of financial education for young people (Vital lessons in finance ignored as secondary schools fail Generation Debt, 11 November). But there’s a big hole in the article: if most teachers can’t/won’t do it due to a lack of time, training or resources, what’s the solution? How can young people get access to this vital information, learn skills such as budgeting and address mindsets like delayed gratification now? We can’t afford to be purists about this any more. Money skills are but a single bullet point covering just public finances and some maths on a guideline of a national curriculum mandated to 11- to 16-year-olds in less than 50% of schools. Those who care have to be realists about the funding, time and expertise available. Teachers shouldn’t be expected to do everything; they need support. It’s time to seriously look at alternative provision.
Our charity, MyBnk, can deliver everything prescribed on the national curriculum in three 100-minute sessions by a single trained and tested education officer. Because we have the time teachers don’t and build our programmes with young people, we can bring a dull subject to life using modern, updated resources. Schools pay just a third of the delivery cost.
The City gets it. The Tax Incentivise Savings Association has brought together 20 leading investment firms to support our primary school lessons in Kickstart Money.
I welcome one and all to join me on the frontline to see what’s really going on!
Declan Wilkes
Head of communications, MyBnk
The amendment of Baroness Kidron to the upcoming data protection bill to include child protection measures (Report, 18 November) is welcome, albeit long overdue. Tech firms have effectively been allowed to get away with barraging children with targeted advertising and notifications, and we have all heard the horror stories of kids spending thousands on their parents’ cards thanks to one-click payments built in to children’s games and apps. This is unscrupulous and unacceptable. Children rarely have the money to fund these in-app purchases. Exploiting their lack of financial knowledge could be perceived as stealing directly from kids’ pockets or their parents’ wallets.
The payments and financial industries have made moves to support parents in protecting their children online – building in extra layers of authentication and enabling parental notifications and spending limits with youth-focused pre-paid or debit cards. However, we must also question whether children are aware when they are being targeted or marketed to. Regulation is crucial, but building in online awareness to financial education classes in schools could arguably be just as effective.
This modern and dangerous problem requires collaboration between parents, schools, government and the financial sector. At a time when personal and household debt in the UK is at an all-time high, it is more important than ever to prepare young people for the digital economy and instil in them financial confidence and competence for the future.
Clint Wilson
Founder, nimbl
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