Schools should teach the curriculum of the future, not the past

Robots, artificial intelligence, automation — these are no longer the stuff of science fiction movies. Overwhelming evidence has shown a shift in workforce needs is already underway and will continue to grow much larger in magnitude in the future. All around the world, leaders from government and industry debate the “future of work” and the changes brought about by technology and automation. However, despite near unanimous agreement about the wave of change, the world is not reacting fast enough to update our system of education.

According to an analysis by the McKinsey Global Institute, of 750 occupations, 51% of job activities are highly susceptible to automation, and that’s through adapting currently demonstrated technology alone. What’s also important to note is that these activities span jobs across industries as well as skill and wage levels. This indicates that automation is much less likely to lead to the mass unemployment predicted by alarmists and almost certainly going to necessitate the re-definition of most occupations and requisite skills.

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014; O*Net; McKinsey visualization.

So, what are we doing to prepare future generations to thrive in this changing landscape? A student that begins primary school today will graduate from university in the mid-2030s, and their career will last through 2060 or beyond. While we can’t predict exactly what our workforce needs will be in in the middle of the century, we already know that workforce needs are changing and will continue to change with the rate of technological advancement.

Yet, when you visit most schools in 2018, you will see teachers teaching the exact same subject matter as they taught in 1918: reading, writing, math, science, history, and foreign languages. Debates about the future of education center on changing how we teach, to embrace technology in the classroom, but there is nearly zero debate about changing what we teach. Any discussion of the future of work should go hand-in-hand with a discussion of the future of curriculum.

"Computer science exercises creativity, problem-solving, ethics, and collaboration."

Problem-solving, creative thinking, digital skills, and collaboration are in greater demand each year, yet largely not taught in our schools. Even when schools teach digital skills, they teach how to use technology — how to create a document or a presentation — rather than how to create technology. Meanwhile, some of the topics we teach today will no longer be essential in the 2030s: handwriting is increasingly obsolete, rote arithmetic is no longer done by hand, and the internet has replaced our need for memorizing reams of noncritical facts.

We are faced with the challenge of re-defining a foundational education to keep up with the evolution of skills required to solve problems, innovate, and succeed. But, as a society, we are failing to meet that challenge, and consequently failing to adequately prepared the next generation for the future.

To prepare all students with the creative, collaborative, and digital problem-solving skills of the future, schools must teach computer science as part of the core curriculum. Computer science is not just about coding. Computer science teaches coding, computational thinking, interface design, data analysis, machine learning, cybersecurity, networking, and robotics. And learning computer science exercises creativity, problem-solving, ethics, and collaboration. These skills aren’t just important for technical careers in the developed world. They are valuable for every career in all economies. Not only that, in a study of how students felt about their classes, computer science and engineering trailed only the arts in classes they liked the most.

Source: Change the Equation and C+R Research. (analysis by Code.org)

What constitutes a foundational education today? Education leaders should discuss removing aspects of the curriculum of 1918 to make room for the curriculum of 2018. Computer science shouldn’t be relegated to after-school clubs, robotics contests, or hackathons. It shouldn’t be accessible only at a premium. It shouldn’t be taught only for one hour. It should be taught as part of the primary and secondary school day, accessible to all students.

Our schools should teach the curriculum of the future, not just the curriculum of the past. Already, many countries have begun embracing computer science as part of their national curriculum. In the United States, 46 states have changed policies to recognize computer science as part of the academic core. Beyond the U.S., more than 25 countries have announced plans to expand school-day access to computer science: not only the U.K., Australia, Japan, or South Korea, but also Argentina, Ecuador, Italy, Malaysia, Sweden, and Thailand.

"Computer science should be taught as part of the primary and secondary school day, accessible to all students."

Today, as we kick off Computer Science Education Week, 24,000 teachers, and nearly 200 governments, school districts, universities, and organizations pledge to expand CS for millions of students worldwide. I was recently invited to present these ideas and host a coding event for the G20 Ministers of Education. The G20 Education Ministers’ Declaration recommended the integration of “computing and coding skills within the curriculum,” adding to the global consensus around computer science.

Code.org Presentation to the G20 Ministers of Education

Teaching computer science in schools may sound intimidating, but it is an idea that generates hope. It inspires teachers and engages students. And even though the majority of the world’s teachers don’t have experience in computer science, and many of the world’s schools lack connected computers, these are problems we can and should solve. They are problems that countries like Brazil, Chile, and Nigeria are establishing plans to solve, and the rest of the world should follow suit.

The future of work may be uncertain. But one thing is absolutely certain: computer science will be in greater demand than ever before, and every student in every school should have an opportunity to learn it as part of their school curriculum.

Hadi Partovi, Code.org