AQO 9211/11-16 Oral question to the Minister of Education
To ask the Minister of Education what initiatives are in place to encourage the development of computer programming skills in schools.
Asked by Stewart Dickson MLA on 19 November 2015
- Answered
- Oral
- After due date
- Tabled
- 19 November 2015
- Answer due by
- 30 November 2015
- Answered
- 1 December 201512 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Education
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The curriculum has been designed to provide flexibility for schools to develop experiences that best suit the needs of their pupils. Embedding mandatory, cross-curricular skills and keeping prescribed content to a minimum, allows schools to choose the most appropriate approach to take to ensure that pupils are engaged and challenged, to reach their full potential.
Computer Science, which includes computer coding, is a specialised field and the flexibility already in place within the curriculum, enables schools to teach Computer Science at any Key Stage.
My Department continues to provide core funding of £300k in 2015/16 to Sentinus, the Department’s frontline STEM delivery partner, to deliver a range of STEM interventions to primary and post-primary schools.
Sentinus’s “IT’s Your Choice” programme, which promotes practical computer programming to young people from Key Stage 2 to post 16 will be available this year and will engage over 8,000 primary and post-primary pupils.