IT education sucks 😭
I don't know how to start this rant but I believe I would start with my experience in high school computer science which really just is IT at this point. Computer science in Cambridge o level's is one of those things that's given more credit than it deserves in under developed countries that have spent a fair share of time under colonial rule. The reason I say this is because in the name of computer science, I was taught:
How bar codes work
How printers physically work
How touch screens physically work
Different types of storage devices
Keywords used for the application of IT in different domains
An inaccurate view of AI
A terrible introduction to networking and cryptography.
Inventing keywords for psuedo code, keywords that literally no one uses aside from our curriculum
And the only useful things: some sorting algorithms, flow charts, and logic gates (truth tables and stuff), the very basics of some programming languages.
Making us memorize SQL (without even telling us which flavor or for which SQL engine, this syntax is for)
A break down on how bad it was:
1.Now teaching bar codes is fine, but making us memorize exactly how it works in theory, at this level is useless and is the wrong way to introduce one to computer science.
2.knowing the types of printers and touch screens is useful, but teaching us the exact physical steps is useless unless you also teach us the physics behind it and even then the utility would be null. All we were thought were abstract steps, rather than the process in terms of physics.
We were taught storage devices in terms of utility and speed, and that was in abstract terms rather than concrete speed based on different generations, and whether a device is SATA, makes use of PCIe, and the moving parts and other possible points of failures of each one.
The keywords that were invented out of nowhere and the definition of AI was "an imitation of the human brain through artificial neurons".
Introduction to networking and cryptography was also terrible, like in networking we were shown a IPv4 packet format as an "internet packet", and we skipped over everything except for looking at diagrams and classifying them as half duplex or full duplex, or filling in a missing device like a router or a switch, while in cryptography, it was just public key and private key in assymetric encryption, and private key in symmetric one, again a terrible incomplete introduction. We were thankfully atleast taught about data integrity techniques like checksums, but even that was purely theoretical, and quite outdated for practical usage.
Psuedocode keywords that we had to memorize so we could pass an exam was their way of introducing us to problem solving.
The SQL part is self explanatory.
A levels:
A levels (which comes after o levels) isn't any better either, except for a project that you must complete at the end, but even the project is a joke, since any trash computer game made with Pygame or something would pass, but a computer driver won't since there aren't enough people to check those stuff.
Conclusion:
1.If they want to teach us computer science theory, then start with the theory of computation, and from there take us to data structure and algorithms.
2.If they want to teach us theory about IT then start with teaching us what a shell is, the directory layout of Linux systems, different file systems, different boot systems, configuring the different types of init process, managing users, managing network interfaces, managing ip tables, and then slowly taking us to networking, from managing a small networks with a single router, to managing a network with many routers using IGPs, the moving to managing autonomous systems using BGP, and so on. All this while also teaching some details about ways to specify hardware specification for different components(clock speed, ppt, tdp, instructions per seconds, etc for CPU, and similar specs for other important components) , cryptography(a proper introduction this time, and improving data redundancy using some data integrity techniques and teaching how to design them.
Final words:
I guess the main goal of this kind of "education" is easy marking and for certain types kids to feel smart. In my case, four years ago (when I was 14), I simply couldn't learn those stuff. My parents thought, I was failing because I didn't try hard enough, but every subject in school was either highly abstract or there to brain wash me. Like the only subjects that functioned the way they are supposed to were the once meant to brainwash me, while the rest were easy to mark placeholders with abstract concepts that maybe helped a teaching business boom, but at the cost of my grades and education. Atleast, the other kids who are good at abstract/unconnected ideas passed, so good for them.
Submitted August 7, 2026 at 12:41AM by itfllow123-gmail-com https://ift.tt/y0nsudm
