Last month BBC News confirmed that the AQA and OCR examination boards will no longer offer GCSE courses in Northern Ireland. These boards will be moving to a 9-1 grading system for courses starting in September 2016, and @BBCNewsNI reported in November that NI will retain the system A*-G grades as “it will be in the best interests of learners here to continue with the established practice of awarding using letters”

As a consequence, it looks like the majority of GCSE courses will switch to the NI Exam board, the CCEA. Unfortunately the CCEA does not have a Computing / Computer Science GCSE for the academic year starting Sept 2016. They do run an ICT GCSE, which has its place, but industry view is that it does not set candidates up well for a career in Software Engineering.

SyncNI recently reported that IT has the highest rate of increases in job vacancies in NI as businesses grow and invest here. The “Innovation Strategy for NI 2014-2025”, published by the NI Executive at the end of 2014 acknowledges the importance of STEM and commits to funding an additional 1,200 undergraduate places in STEM areas.

In addition there is much being done to encourage and support people to move into the sector by the industry; by the STEM programme; through education (Universities, Regional Colleges, & Schools); and by innovative organisations such as BringITOnNI, IT3Sixty, SpecialisterneNI, e-skills Action Network, NISP Connect Generation Innovation, and many others…

Approximately 30,000 pupils took GCSE’s in NI in 2015, and (give or take minor variances) 30,000 pupils in NI will now be denied the opportunity to study a GCSE in Computing as they start this important phase of their education in the autumn.

My personal opinion is that the software industry in Northern Ireland can ill afford to 'skip a year' at this time of significant growth, and it is concerning that this year’s students will be short of a qualification that many future employers & Higher Education institutions will be looking for.

There are two potential glimmers of hope

The Welsh examination board (WJEC) does have a Computer Science GCSE that will provide A*-G grading, and I believe some schools are looking at this option for Computing as well as for other courses that are no longer going to be available. The Department of Education has decided that some subjects will be given a 9-1 grading, but at the moment this only applies to "minority languages and other small entry subjects". So perhaps there is some room for movement if the demand is there.





I would ask that who shares my concern to contact their local schools to see if you can provide any assistance or support to help them to resolve this problem in the best interests of the "learners" and the Northern Ireland IT, Creative Media, and Knowledge sectors.

Charlie Tuxworth

Director, Software and Innovation

EQUINITI

All opinons are my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.