The information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum in schools is clearly not working.
National data released this week confirms an ongoing trend that now sees nearly half of Australian secondary school students failing to meet minimum digital literacy standards.
In 2014, more than 10,500 students were assessed on their ICT knowledge, understanding and skills.
Of those, just 55% of students in year 6 achieved expected standards, while 52% of students in year 10 were deemed competent in completing “challenging but reasonable” tasks, such as the creation of tables and charts, sorting data in a spreadsheet or editing graphics and text.
This equates to a 6% and 13% decrease for years 6 and 10 respectively over the last three years.