By Natasha Lomas, 7 February 2008 14:03
NEWS
The skills shortage could be set to take a turn for the worse if an early year drop in the number of students applying for postgraduate IT teacher training courses continues.
The latest figures show students applying to do a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in IT in England are down 16.3 per cent on the same time last year. The stats have been published by the graduate teacher training registry (GTTR), which processes applications throughout spring and summer.
A total of 199 men and 98 women have so far applied to train to teach IT in England on courses that will start this autumn. This compares to 218 men and 137 women who had signed up to inspire tomorrow's techies by this time last year.
IT is by no means the only subject getting less love - the total number of students applying for PGCE courses in England has so far fallen by 8.8 per cent, and applicants to the majority of subjects are down.
However IT is one of the subjects showing the biggest decline in interest. Only physics, business studies, biology and chemistry show bigger drop-offs in teacher training applications so far this year.
Traditionally applications to PGCE courses can surge towards the end of students' degree courses in response to recruitment initiatives, according to the GTTR.
Comments
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1. Roger Huffadine
Teaching IT in Schools is mainly policing errant students who enrolled for IT so that they can play computer games.
There are a few students who would like to learn the [limited by government diktat] curriculum but don't get the attention that they deserve because of the majority of games players in their class.
The truly 'bright' pupils already know everything that is in the curriculum and develop further skills at home.
Anyone applying for a PGCE in IT should first spend time in a city school watching a week of IT lessons.
I suspect that the drop in applications for PGCE in IT would drop to almost zero.
It would be interesting to know how many of the 355 applicants from last year finally make it into a classroom and stay for more than 2 years.
2. Simon
I'm not surprised !
A couple of years ago, when a forced job change was imminent, I considered teaching - but not for long.
Who want's to work in a classroom, being forced by political meddling to teach "the wrong stuff" in "the wrong way" because some "new" fad has come around again ? And then there is the political pressure to make teacher to blame for failures in what they are forced to teach, and the stupid situation that makes discipline almost impossible to do, ....
My mother was a teacher (now retired). It was bad then, it's a lot worse now.