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The UK government is to proceed with scrapping the current programme of ICT lessons in schools from September, it has announced.
The decision means that whilst schools are still required to teach ICT at all key stages in the meantime, teachers will be able to decide how to do so without government direction.
The disapplication of ICT will pave the way for the introduction of computer science as a replacement, which could have a significant effect on the UK games industry.
A public consultation has now been launched on the draft regulations to bring the new scheme into force, and will last from today until July 11th.
“Great news announced today by Gov to scrap the ICT curric so schools will be free to teach Computer Science from Sept,” tweeted Eidos life president Ian Livingstone, one of the major campaigners for computer science in schools.
In January, education secretary Michael Gove announced the government planned to scrap ICT and replace it with a mix of “open source” curriculum of computer science and programming.
In a January speech in response to the review, Michael Gove said: "Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum.
"Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word or Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations.”
The move is a triumph for the Livingstone-Hope skills review, co-authored by Alex Hope and Ian Livingstone, which made 20 recommendations to remedy the so-called “digital skills gap” affecting UK games development studios.
