The subject of computer science was for a few days at the center of Twitter conversations. It is something that does not usually happen, unfortunately for the professionals who teach this subject. They’ve been years demanding more resources and attention to this subject and the new educational law has gone the completely opposite way.
The Organic Law of Modification of the LOE (LOMLOE) has been the last modification of a long list of changes in recent years. The novelty now is that the subject of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This was the only subject that had a direct relationship with the teaching of computer science. It is true that it was not compulsory in the Baccalaureate and the autonomous communities and the educational centers chose if they taught them. But, at least, in the previous law they appeared expressly in the educational law. Not even that now.
The LOMLOE has eliminated the computer science subject from this list and once again it is the autonomous communities that can propose it as an optional subject. This proposal must be accepted “by the corresponding educational Administration,” the law states.
The first ones who need a computer science subject are the teachers
The computer science professors and the entire guild did not take long to speak out. Ezequiel Pérez, spokesman for the Andalusian Association of Computer Science Teachershe says hypertextual who has never been optimistic. Despite the fact that the autonomous communities can include the computer science subject in their programme, he thinks that there are few who will take it truly seriously.
First of all, and perhaps one of the most important challenges, begins with teacher training who teach the subject. “In order to have the English degree (which accredits the training of a teacher) it is necessary to go to an academy and take an exam with the competent authority. For the certificate of digital skills, for example, you can do some courses and you get“, the Mint.
The lack of training, he continues, is not limited to a few centers. “Imagine that the Latin teacher is giving math to your children. What would you think? This is what is happening”. The Andalusian Association of Computer Science Teachers collaborates with its counterparts in Valencia and Castilla-La Mancha. Ezequiel Pérez demands, however, greater involvement and a union that can be strong.
With the specific training for the computer science subject, Pérez refers to those people included in the body of secondary school teachers in computer science. Is he corps 590, specialty 107 of the General Directorate of Teaching Personnel. With this training, teachers can teach secondary and high school students, as well as in higher and intermediate level training cycles.
Ezequiel Pérez calls for greater unity for his sector, after warning that in Aragón, for example, he knows to a single computer science teacher with this training. “Imagine who will teach the computer classes,” she stresses.
The transversality of the computer science subject
In an interview with The objective, of La Sexta, the Minister of Education and Vocational Training Pilar Alegría affirmed that the subject of computer science in the Baccalaureate is not eliminated. In addition to the fact that it is the autonomous communities that can choose it as an optional subject, she explained that the strategy is that digital skills are transversal and throughout all subjects.
Associations such as the one for which Ezequiel Pérez is the spokesperson do not agree because they argue that it can be taught in different subjects, such as how to use some programs, is not sufficient. Knowing how to use a computer is far from teaching based on robotics, programming or cybersecurity. One thing is digital skills, another to teach computer science disciplines.
Pérez has given as an example, to understand the problem, that the argument of transversality instead of a computer science subject is the same as if in a bilingual center of Spanish and English the English class is no longer taught. Because it is already taught in the other subjects in a transversal way. The same with the Spanish language.
In the end, the spokesperson for the Andalusian computer teachers’ association summarizes that if a student arrives at university with very little knowledge of technology. “I know young people who in the first year of their degree have been asked for notions of programming and they had to enroll in an academy to learn“.
What was missing was a confinement
Carlos de Manuel Clemente is the dean of the Official College of Technical Computer Engineers of Castilla-La Mancha. he talks to hypertextual as an expert in the field but also as a father who has experienced confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic. What caused that all the students of Spain had to Continue your education online.
In his experience, the pandemic exposed problems such as the lack of infrastructure and unified communications within the education system. “There is also a lack of resources at the human level so that infrastructures are managed“, explains de Manuel, “and if they want there to be cross-curricular teaching instead of a computer science subject, the services must be managed by qualified professionals”.
The dean recalls that each teacher used the tool he had for his classes and that in very few cases a system was unified for all. For comfort but also for safety. “It cannot be that one center uses one tool and another center another. There is personal data of the students and that must also be taken into account,” she warns.
It is not enough to be a digital native
The confinement and online teaching was not only a challenge for the digital infrastructure, but also to test the digital knowledge of the students. Carlos de Manuel Clemente can help your children to use all platformsBut this is not the case for all parents. Nor do they have computers available for each member of the family.
Ezequiel Pérez also has an opinion on this subject. Although the new generations are known as digital natives, the computer skills of many students fall short. “The moment you ask them to do something more complex, like do a presentation with transitions, they have no idea. They will have been born with the mobile in their hand but they know four things”, affirms the computer scientist.
Bárbara Hernández is a teacher in a private school in Catalonia. She agrees with computer experts that it is necessary to improve the digital education of the so-called digital natives, “in the same way that we are native Spanish and that does not mean that we do not need to be taught it”. The result is a group of young people who have a lot of intuition but with little professionalism in this sense and without a specific computer science subject.
However, it points to hypertextual that awareness is also needed for adults. “You start the house from the roof and the first is to teach the teaching staff, educate teachers and educators on the importance of information technology, data security, big data. Steps are being made but they are slow”, he comments.
There is no computer science subject, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel
On the other hand, it must also be taken into account that there a part of the teaching staff that is elderly and that, in addition to not having many technological capacities, they are against the importance that technology acquires in the educational system, as well as that of the computer science subject. “As in many other things, in the end it depends on your teacher. That shouldn’t happen, but it is true that in many schools they are getting their act together in this regard because of what has happened in the pandemic,” Hernández counters.
In this sense, in the case of the teacher not everything is negative. In Catalonia and in his school, at least, he is witness to how computer language, such as robotics, is beginning to be taught from an early age.
“I think there are more and more educational programs related to robotics from a young age. But it’s not just using the computer but also understanding how programming works. We are moving towards it, at least in the Catalan sphere.”
Barbara Hernandez
Some interesting developments focus on tools like scratch, one of the most used in Spanish schools. Scratch is based on a visual language with blocks that are put together like a puzzle and it is an easy method to learn programming. However, the real goal is to develop the computational thinking for children to learn to solve problems in different ways. “The objective is not to create programmers, but rather to approach the way of facing problems from computer science, approach it and dissect it into small parts”, she explained to hypertextual Pau Córdoba, ICT teacher and coordinator in Granollers, in a previous article.
The Recovery Plan invests in digital training
Despite the fact that the modification of the educational law has left (even more) behind the presence of the computer science subject in schools, the investment in digital skills goes the other way. Just like reported the media outlet Vozpopuligovernment will invest nearly 3,600 million euros in digital training. Within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, it is contemplated that this investment guarantees that 80% of the population has digital skills.
In the plan they detail the strategies to improve training, while they share data such as the fact that the percentage of ICT specialists represents a lower proportion within the active population than that of the EU (2.9% compared to 3.7% in The EU). “ICT graduates in Spain represent 3.9% of the total. Women ICT specialists only reach 1% of total female employment,” it reads The document.
In the specific case of young people, several studies confirm that more training is needed. In addition, the students themselves consider that they need greater computer skills and request a greater effort from the educational system, according to the study Young people, future and technological expectation, carried out by BBVA and Google. A computer subject that manages to improve the training of students in this matter is not contemplated in the educational law, as the experts claim. All efforts to change this law have been, so far, in vain.