One in eight pupils in Scotland attend a secondary with no computing teacher
crisis in the teaching of computing science in Scotland has been laid bare by experts who fear a series of alarming trends represent a threat to the nation’s economy.
The Reform Scotland thinktank published a report showing more than 32,000 children – one in eight of all secondary pupils – attend a secondary school with no qualified computing science teacher. The figure rises to around 50 per cent of schools in some more rural parts of Scotland.
A total of 66 secondary schools were found to have no computing science teacher, while the number of such teachers across Scotland has fallen by a quarter since 2008. Meanwhile ,25 secondary schools with a roll above 1,000 pupils have only one qualified computing science teacher.
The trend is set to continue, with The Scotsman recently reporting how there were just 16 students studying to be computing teachers on professional graduate diploma in education (PGDE) courses, against a target of 52.
Garethwilliams,a founder of sky scanner and a Reform Scotland trustee, said: “Countries that lag behind in enhancing the computational skills of their workforce will increasingly struggle to compete in the modern world.
“It is vital that we address the issues impeding children' s educationin computer science, and that Scotland wakes up to how important this is.”
Professor Mark Logan puba lished a review for the Scottish Government in 2020 into how the technology sector could contribute to the country’s economic recovery after the pandemic. He raised similar concerns while giving evidence to Holyrood’s education committee yesterday.
The Glasgow University professor said: “We have computing science deserts in Scotland. In the north of Scotland [Highland] half of our schools have no qualified computing science teacher.
“In the south of scotland, two third so four schools[ ten out of 16 in Dumfries and Galloway] have no qualified computing science teacher. That adds up to a bad, static picture. I mean, to me it sounds like a crisis. But it is worse than that, because you’ve got to look at the trends with these things.
“Teacher numbers since 2008 have fallen by 25 per cent. This year we area tour lowest numberof computing science teachers on record-we had 766 in 2008 and we have 578 now.”
Prof Logan said there were about eight times more computingscience teachers over the age of 55 as under 25.
“You can see, if you intersect these different aspects-recruitment falling, demographic time bomb, a lot of departments have one computing science teacher soar every vulnerable-we are in difficulty, I think it’s fair to say,” Prof Logan said.
On Monday, The Scotsman featured an initiative launched by Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen, which offers SQA Higher computing courses to pupils across Scotland, as part of an online learning resource.