Education Business

The findings of our recent Ofsted report, ‘The importance of ICT: information and communication technology in primary and secondary schools 2005/8’, reveal that schools are making the subject a high priority for development. New equipment has been funded by government investment of nearly £2 billion over the past decade and school leaders were providing a vision for the place of ICT in learning.
    
Students are enthusiastic about learning ICT, both in school and at home. Our inspectors saw some great examples of students using modern technology to communicate and present their ideas.

Rising standards
The evidence from the visits to primary schools suggests a picture of improvement with rising achievement and standards, particularly at Key Stage 1. The pupils we observed generally used ICT effectively to communicate their ideas and to present their work, but they were less skilled in collecting and handling data and in controlling events using ICT.
    
Most of the primary schools we visited ensured pupils received their full entitlement to the National Curriculum for ICT, although commonly the curriculum was not well balanced. Teachers tended to give more attention to those aspects of ICT where they themselves felt confident.
    
At best, teachers integrated ICT carefully into the curriculum and it was helping to raise standards in other subjects. Good leadership and management made developing ICT a priority in these schools. Effective use of self-evaluation to inform investment in resources and training was driving the improvements which were seen.

Low standards
In secondary schools students’ achievement was good or better in approaching half of the schools in our survey, with more good work seen towards the end of the survey period. However, the Key Stage 4 curriculum was inadequate in around one fifth of the schools we visited; assessment was unsatisfactory in a similar proportion, and many students were following qualifications of doubtful value.
    
Although students used ICT well to present their work, communicate their ideas and, increasingly, to manipulate and use a variety of digital media, standards in using spreadsheets, databases and programming remained low. Furthermore, we found teachers gave too much emphasis to teaching students to use particular software applications rather than helping them to acquire genuinely transferable skills.
    
Over-reliance on a standard ‘office’ application and operating system restricted students’ opportunities to develop generic and transferable skills. There was widespread use of more reliable resources but in some schools responses to some serious, long-entrenched failings were stubbornly slow.
    
In both primary and secondary schools many higher-attaining pupils were insufficiently challenged. We found this was particularly marked at Key Stage 4 where accreditation of vocational qualifications is based mostly on the assessment of coursework. Students were spending considerable time demonstrating proficiency in what they could already do in order to meet the assessment criteria, rather than being introduced to new and more challenging material and skills. Most students who chose not to pursue an ICT qualification at Key Stage 4 did not receive their statutory entitlement to the National Curriculum for ICT.
    
There has been a decline in the number of sixth form students choosing to take computer studies. This has been particularly marked in girls, with 45 per cent fewer taking an A-level in the subject in 2007 compared to 2004 as opposed to a drop of 31 per cent in boys.

Teachers’ knowledge
Most of the teachers we observed had good subject knowledge in some aspects of ICT and were confident and competent users of it. This was generally best where schools had audited the training needs of staff systematically and had begun to tackle any gaps. Teachers’ subject knowledge was weakest in data logging, manipulating data and programming.
    
Assessment was the weakest aspect of teaching and was inadequate in one school in five. The schools we visited rarely tracked the progress of individuals in ICT, established their attainment on entry to secondary school or took into account their achievement outside school. Although the use of ICT in other subjects was increasing in secondary schools, the skills were rarely assessed. As a result, ICT teachers rarely knew how well students applied their ICT skills elsewhere.

Best value procurement
Some of the schools we visited did not apply the four principles of best value to their purchasing and did not obtain good value for money from their investment. Only around half of the schools showed us evidence that they were systematically evaluating the impact of ICT in improving learning and raising standards across the curriculum.
    
We recommend that the DCSF should evaluate the level of challenge posed by some Key Stage 4 qualifications while also finding ways to encourage more girls to study ICT in the sixth form. Our report concludes that it is up to school leaders to find ways of getting ICT into more of their classrooms, to ensure it is well taught and assessed, to promote higher standards and to get good value for money from the investments they make.
    
Around 77 per cent of the workforce now uses information technology in their job and the demand for these skills is likely to continue to increase. Schools must equip young people with the tools to ensure their employability. ICT needs to be given high status, both by the government and in individual schools, in line with its importance to young people’s future economic wellbeing.