Design Technology in Schools

The petition is entitled Return Design Technology to its former status as a must do subject and remove schools ability to opt out from teaching it and the explanatory notes say

"Design Technology is a vital life skill, safe use of woodworking machinery and tools would firstly keep may young DIY enthusiasts out of Accident and Emergency. The use of CNC, Electronics, Robotics, Control System, Laser Cutters, rapid prototyping machines, are part of the model D&T department however these machines are not cheap and most schools are financially motivated to drop Design Technology. If we are to have a future populuos that has engineering skills, we must introduce the subject early, even the greatest scientist at some stage needs an engineering ability if it is only to build his test rig. We can't all work in offices, without production there is no export without export we become a third world nation in debt to the rest of the world."

A quick look at the National Curriculum website shows that "Design and Technology" is still a required subject at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3; that is, from the ages of five to fourteen. It is no longer a requirement at Key Stage 4, the GCSE level.

Now, I'm a bit divided on the subject of the petition; the substance, as it were. On the one hand, I hated what was then called CDT (Craft, Design and Technology) at school. In principle I was interested in both the textile and culinary aspects of CDT: in practice what we were taught felt like management speak bollocks and a lack of basic skills.

Having done an engineering MSc I now realise what people were trying to teach us about planning and technical drawing and so on. But there were two flaws with it: the one I was aware of at the time was the lack of basic skills being taught as well: we weren't taught to boil an egg, to follow a pattern, to sew on a button, to interpret basic technical diagrams, nothing like that. So we were floundering around trying to do the technical drawing and planning and so on without the least basis for anything. (And our parents, who learnt the basic skills at school, were tearing their hair out at the apparent nonsense we were being taught. Well, my mother was, anyway.) The other problem is that I really didn't realise the uses and purposes what we were meant to be learning could be put to. Individually I understood that if we were taught cookery properly we'd be able to cook, if we were taught textiles and sewing properly we'd be able to sew, and if we were taught the woodwork bit properly we'd be able to do woodwork (I was a clumsy child and the workshop bits of the subject were murder and I never understood at all, really). I did not understand that they were trying to teach us useful skills that lead to Engineering, among other things. It's quite possible I wouldn't have paid attention if I had realised; I was singularly obtuse about my own abilities and inclinations.

Anyway, what I'm saying is that with the basic skills taught as well as the higher-level planning aspects it's a very valuable subject. I'm not at all sure I approve of schools being able to not offer it as an option at GCSE. (However, I do agree with making it only an option - doing it benefited me not a whit, and frankly the students who might have enjoyed it and benefited would probably have done so more without people like me in the class).

On the other hand, the petitioner is either wrong or has phrased things badly: it's only been dropped from being compulsory at KS4. Up to the end of Year 9 it's still compulsory.