THE number of computing science teachers in Scotland has dropped sharply, sparking fears for the future of the subject.
New figures show teacher numbers in the subject have fallen by 109 in the past two years - a drop of 14 per cent.
One in eight secondary schools in Scotland do not have a computing science specialist at all.
Kate Farrell, co-chair of professional support body Computing At School Scotland, which collated the figures, said pupils were being "sold out".
She said: "At a time when, more than ever, we need subject specialists teaching computing science, we have actually seen a fall in num-bers. The industry needs programmers, software and web development experts, but currently we don't have enough skilled young people to meet the demand.
"It is clear we need to increase the number of students training to teach computing science over the next few years as a matter of urgency."
The call follows widespread concerns that too many schools teach computing in a passive way and do not make students aware of the career opportunities available. Some schools have even closed their computer science departments, blaming a lack of interest.
Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said the UK was throwing away its "great computer heritage" by failing to teach programming in 2011.
And in 2012 Ian Livingstone, co-author of a report on the future of the UK gaming industry, said Scottish schools should give computer science the same prominence as chemistry physics and mathematics.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article