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NEC declares the introduction of informatics unrealistic at the moment – Ministry of Education warns of the loss of yet another informatics-literate generation
Wednesday, 29.06.2016.
14:32
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Aleksandar Lipkovski, president of the National Education Council, explained for eKapija that none of the members had come out against the initiative and that it was good, but that they needed to make sure that there are technical and financial conditions for it.
- The Ministry's proposal was to realize the bring-your-own-device model, by which the students would be obliged to bring their computers to classes, which is not right. Everybody needs to have equal work conditions, which costs money, so schools need to be financially supported by the state. As long as schools are not connected to the Academic Network of the Republic of Serbia (ANRES) and without a safe, fast and free internet access, which has been promised to happen before December, enough devices for teachers as well, the project is not backed by realistic conditions. We mustn't allow for the students to use their own devices, but have them provided by the system instead – emphasizes Lipkovski.
Snezana Markovic, Assistant Minister for secondary education and adult education, says for our portal that it is true that schools are not sufficiently equipped, but that they have all the specialized classrooms in which informatics is already being taught and that in forming their proposal they were guided by the fact that it is much more important not to miss the opportunity to make another generation literate in informatics.
- The program is flexible and doesn't require working with hardware, and the students who do have their own devices might use them in class. All schools have computer classrooms and with a little skillful organizing the whole thing could work. Not even the richest countries have ideal conditions, and in weighing the issue in its entirety, we decided that it was much more important for the students to be taught using an up-to-date curriculum, to develop their digital literacy from an early age, even if it means making an extra effort, than to lose another generation in terms of literacy in informatics.
Markovic reminds that, 5 years ago, the Ministry of Telecommunication equipped all elementary schools with digital classrooms. When, however, the contract on maintenance expired after 3 years, some schools continued maintaining the system themselves, while others didn't.
- The Ministry can't procure the means by itself. Instead, it needs to be done at the level of the Government and I believe that, after this sobering experience, things will change. Nowadays, almost an entire classroom can be equipped with tablets at the price of a quality computer, and the systemic solution for the maintenance of the existing equipment also needs to be prepared so that it wouldn't go to waste and depend on the resourcefulness of principals and the wealth of local self-governments. We have enjoyed the moral support by ICT companies so far, and the question of technical equipment and maintenance is always open and its solution should involve the contribution of the whole society in securing educational resources.
- If we see that there are resources for organizing the teaching of informatics for everybody under the same conditions, and not just as an optional subject, and that schools can organize the curriculum without additional investments, the initiative might be adopted beginning with school year 2017/18 – says Lipkovski.
Markovic emphasizes that the Ministry will do everything they can to improve everything that needs to be improved and to persuade the National Education Council that the fact that they were quick and efficient in creating the proposal, which they presented together with the Ministry of Telecommunications regarding technical requirements, teacher competence and the pace of changes, doesn't mean that the initiative is not realistic.
The proposal to introduce informatics into the core curriculum in elementary schools has received the support of a large number of ICT companies. The regret that it wasn't adopted has been expressed by the Vojvodina ICT Cluster, which tweeted: “We made a joint effort, we will keep on trying”. Dr Irini Reljin, Assistant Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications said that she wished to make an even more radical proposal and that she expected for the informatics literacy to be introduced to the first grade and for the algorithmic thinking to be developed in children from the first day of school.
That this kind of thinking needs to be developed from an early age in order to secure the existence of competent IT human resources, which is of great importance, since IT is one of Serbia's biggest opportunities for development, was one of the conclusions of the eKapija round table “It Human Resources – Potential for or Obstacle to Development”. On that occasion, Markovic pointed out that “our children are digitally skillful, but not digitally competent, which is why we need to work on improving the school system when it comes to informatics. The research which was carried out on eight grade students last autumn showed that 60% of them hadn't correctly answered the questions from the informatics and computer science course, that 50% of them had never used the computer to study, whereas they spent 5 hours in front of the computer on work days and seven hours on weekends .”
By the decision of the majority of members of the highest education authority, however, informatics classes will still be attended only by those pupils who choose that option. The existing subjects will merely be slightly modernized. Changes will take place in the contents of the subjects “From toys to computers” (grades 1-4), Informatics and computer science (optional for grades 5-8) and Informatics and computer science (mandatory in high schools).
I. Bezarevic
Ministarstvo prosvete Republike Srbije
Nacionalni prosvetni savet Republike Srbije Novi Beograd
Ministarstvo turizma i omladine Republike Srbije