Software expert James Curran helped rewrite Australia's new curriculum (全部课程) for information technology subjects. He said the changes to the current curriculum could stop teenagers avoiding computing and maths subjects in high school. "Kids are naturally curious, but we don't set up the curriculum in a way that awakens their curiosity so that they can learn the things they want to, and the things they have to, "Curran said. "Teaching maths and computing in a new way makes a very big difference. "
As more and more high school students drop out of advanced maths subjects, Dr Curran warned that computing subjects were in an even more difficult position than them. Only 1, 748 year-12 students enrolled (登记) in software design and development in New South Wales last year—about half the 3, 300 who studied the subject 10 years ago. Enrolments in information technology have declined sharply, from 10, 000 in 2001 to just 1, 939 students in 2021.
"Students are not taking computing subjects at the senior level because the subject is a bit out of date, "Curran said. "Computing is a subject that changes all the time and needs to be changed every few years, so I would like to see a continuous process of smaller changes and updates to it."
As schools struggle to make students stick with the subjects of information technology, engineering and maths, 1, 000 primary schools across Australia have signed up for a new pro-gram to get young kids interested in high-tech jobs. The program uses online lessons to show children as young as six the process of designing the Olympics logo, and how Netflix collects information to decide which movies to make.
11-year-old student Mia Lucas had fun completing a model on UX design. It is the "user experience" process that design teams use to create products. "I've always been interested in creating a website or an app but didn't know the first step in doing that," she said. "The pro-gram helps me a lot."
