Radical curriculum overhaul proposed in Wales
26th February 2015
A radical change to how and what children in Wales are taught is under consideration 26 years after the national curriculum was introduced.
Prof Graham Donaldson wants computer programming and IT in all classes to be as important as literacy and numeracy.
Schools should have more flexibility to teach around a central curriculum.
The results of the independent review have been called “a compelling, exciting and ambitious vision” by the education minister.
Prof Donaldson – a former chief inspector of schools appointed last March to look at what is taught in Wales – suggests:
- Six areas of learning will combine core and non-core subjects
- Key stages – which apply from the moment pupils start to infant school to when they take their GCSEs – to be replaced. Pupils’ learning should be more seamless as they progress and there should be better working between primary and secondary schools.
- A key development is embedding “digital competency” in school life. As well as improving computer science as a subject, all pupils would be equipped with the ability to programme and code computers. Teachers would have to think of ways of weaving that, along with literacy and numeracy, into every lesson.
Read more on the BBC website
