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Schools should require children to obtain a new alternative digital literacy qualification with an emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) and other modern digital skills, the British Computer Society (BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT) has said.
The professional body for the IT and computing sector said children should begin learning about the usefulness of AI tools from the age of 11, in order to understand AI‘s strengths and limitations.
To achieve this, IT experts said an understanding of AI should also become a key part of teacher training and headteacher qualifications.
“Young people need modern digital skills, like understanding how AI chatbots can help them in their life and career, but these aren’t covered in the current GCSE, which is highly theoretical,” said Julia Adamson, director of education at the BCS. “The digital literacy options available need to change immediately so that the UK’s teenagers don’t get left behind.”
“What we have now is great if you want to become a computer scientist – degrees in computing are more popular than ever. But children who aren’t going to specialise in coding early on also have a right to those essential digital skills, including understanding AI, so they can hold their own in the global workplace.
“Everything from marketing to law is going to require pretty strong knowledge of generative AI in the future so it has to start in the classroom at a young age.”
The BCS also called for the scope of the existing GCSE qualification to be broadened to include a focus on how AI is built, as well as its risks and opportunities
Parents support this change. Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) were in favour of the introduction of a wider IT skills qualification to complement the current computer science GCSE, according to a BCS-commissioned YouGov poll of parents in England. Nearly all parents surveyed (96 per cent) said that learning computing and IT skills at school was important.
This would also be in line with government goals: an updated policy paper from the Department for Education in October this year said the education sector “needs to teach students how to use emerging technologies, such as generative AI, safely and appropriately.”
Figures published this summer showed that the rise of AI tools has inspired a record number of British school graduates to study computing courses at university, which has become the seventh most popular course to study at university after the number of applications from Year 13 graduates rose by 9.5 per cent on 2022.
In 2023, there were 94,870 applications to computing from 18-year-olds in the UK, up from 86,630 last year and 71,150 in 2021, Ucas revealed.
However, in February, research conducted by the BCS found that 62 per cent of professionals believe that chatbots like ChatGPT will make it harder to mark students’ work fairly. The technology has been shown to be able to create passing-grade answers even at university level, including passing law exams at one university.
