In response to a report on the video games industry, the coalition admitted that current technology education was “insufficiently rigorous”.
The “Next Gen” report, published earlier this year, found that pupils should be taught computer science and how to write software code, rather than just how to use existing software, as is often the case today.

“The Government recognises that learning the skills to use ICT [Information and Communications Technology] effectively and acquiring the knowledge of the underpinning computer science are two different (albeit complementary) subjects,” the Department of Culture Media and Sport said today.
“Furthermore, the Government recognises that the current ICT programme is insufficiently rigorous and in need of reform.”
An ongoing review of the National Curriculum is considering whether ICT should be a discrete subject in schools.

“As part of that process the review will consider the teaching of computer science within ICT,” the Government said.
“The Government recognises that, in the event of ICT not remaining part of the National Curriculum, attention would still need to be given to ensure children could acquire computer science skills.”

It follows criticism of the education system by technology giants including Google and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, gave a major speech in which he condemned the technology curriculum in British schools.

“Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made,” he said.

“That is just throwing away your great computing heritage.”

Ian Livingstone, the life president of the video games firm Eidos and an author of the “Next Gen” report said he was “hopeful that there has been a realisation that it [computer science] is essential knowledge for the 21st century”.

“It’s no coincidence that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was taught computer science at school, a subject which gave him practical skills and provided the intellectual underpinnings of his business,” he wrote in a newspaper article today.

“Faced with a world in which they will be surrounded by computers and the opportunities they create, Britain’s schoolchildren deserve the same chance to succeed.”