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A/L ICT too advanced claim stakeholders, Minister downgrades syllabus for 2015 exam
View(s):In the United States, where computer technology has grown by leaps and bounds, one finds users who are still confused. When an instructor once directed a student to “press any key,” he replied “that key is not on the keyboard.” However, in Sri Lanka the issue appears to have assumed more complex proportions. So much so, schools, students and parents have synced together to protest an Education Ministry syllabus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Schools complain that teachers do not know how to teach ICT in advertising, modern computers which are included in competency level 1, basic digital encoding methods, virtual machines, use of check digits under data validation methods, application programmes, memory organisation and memory management, Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) to name a few. Students claim they do not understand what is being taught and their parents endorse that view.
The result – Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena has agreed to amend the syllabus. He says he has been inundated with complaints.
Accordingly, advanced areas of programming, database and website developing will be among topics that have been removed in the recently revised Advanced Level (A/L) ICT syllabus.
Minister Gunawardena said complaints kept on flooding during the past few years from students and their parents, as well as school authorities, especially those from outstation schools.These amendments come after five years since the introduction of the syllabus. “We do not want students dropping this subject at a time when the State is promoting learning of Information Technology (IT). Schools were complaining that teachers are finding it extremely difficult to teach the subjects in the syllabus,” the Minister said.
Education Ministry Secretary Anura Dissanayake has issued a circular instructing all school principals, provincial and zonal directors of education, as well as the commissioner general of examinations, to follow the revised syllabus. The other subject content removed are the definition of knowledge, ICT in advertising, modern computers which are included in competency level 1, basic digital encoding methods, virtual machines, use of check digits under data validation methods, application programmes, memory organisation and memory management, Instruction Set Architecture(ISA) and many more.
The revised syllabus will be implemented targeting students sitting for the A/L exam in 2015. Meanwhile, Prof Gihan Dias of the Moratuwa University’s Department of Computer Science, said the syllabus needs further removal of sections as they are highly advanced for A/L students. “There are about 1,200 schools having ICT as an A/L subject, and there is an issue of teachers and teacher capabilities. IT Degree holders find teaching an area with less space to grow, and hence, are reluctant to join the profession. There is also a huge demand for IT professionals in the private sector. There is a serious shortage of IT teachers, especially in the outstations. Therefore, education authorities should promote e-learning,” he said.
He said that the A/L ICT subject should not only be grooming students for a university course, but prepare them to undergo further training in IT or enter the job market. “The syllabus is fairly advanced, with some content not even included in the university’s first year syllabus. There are some areas even I do not know,” said the Professor who was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame last year.