Schools in large parts of Scotland are a “desert” for computing science teachers - and the picture is in danger of getting worse, according to one of the country’s foremost experts in the subject.
The trend could cause long-term damage to any hopes Scotland has of emulating similar-sized countries that are excelling in innovative technology, said Professor Mark Logan, as the crucial pipeline of talent through schools is in danger of drying up.
Professor Logan published a 2020 review for the Scottish government on how the technology sector could contribute to the country’s economic recovery after the pandemic, and yesterday gave an update to the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee.
“We have computing science deserts in Scotland,” he said. “In the north of Scotland, half of our schools have no qualified computing science teacher.
“In the south of Scotland, two-thirds of our schools have no qualified computing science teacher. That adds up to a bad, static picture.”
Long-term trends paint worrying picture
This “sounds like a crisis” but long-term trends made the picture look even worse, said Professor Logan, who has been instrumental in multiple start-up companies, including a spell as chief operating officer of Skyscanner, one of the most successful start-ups to have come out of Scotland
He stressed that computing science teacher numbers had fallen by 25 per cent since 2008, from 766 to 578.
Professor Logan said there were about eight times more computing science teachers aged over 55 compared to those under 25.
“You can see, if you intersect these different aspects - recruitment falling, demographic timebomb, a lot of departments have one computing science teacher so are very vulnerable - we are in difficulty, I think it’s fair to say,” Professor Logan said.
Yesterday, the think tank Reform Scotland published a report showing more than 32,000 secondary students - one in eight of all secondary students - attend a secondary school with no qualified computing science teacher. The figure rises to around half in some more rural parts of Scotland.
“For most of the last four years I think the problem has been that Education Scotland and related authorities didn’t consider computing science to be important.”
Watch @Mark_Logan1 give us an update on the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review:https://t.co/ApOvdGdOKc pic.twitter.com/3jODTG7iRv
- Education, Children and Young People Committee (@SP_ECYP) May 29, 2024
Some 66 secondary schools have no computing science teacher, while 25 secondaries with a roll above 1,000 pupils have only one qualified computing science teacher.
This shortage of computing teachers made it hard for Scotland to emulate other small countries that are at the cutting edge of new technology, Professor Logan warned, such as Estonia, Lithuania and Finland.
Dearth of computing science student teachers
In March, Tes Scotland, in reporting recruitment difficulties around student teachers in a range of subjects, showed that in computing 69 per cent of places had gone unfilled.
In almost four years since Professor Logan published Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review, he believes “the problem has been that Education Scotland and related authorities didn’t consider computing science to be important” and “didn’t think it was in crisis”.
His 2020 review stressed that computing science should be treated as an equal to other science subjects.
Professor Logan also stressed to MSPs yesterday that, despite his concerns about attitudes towards computing among those with influential positions in Scottish education, he had seen some “encouraging” signs of change in recent times.
Teaching more attractive to graduates than often believed
Professor Logan did not buy the argument that school teaching was unattractive to teaching graduates, stressing that, in his experience, about 40 per cent did not want to become software engineers.
“And contrary to another myth, teaching salaries are actually OK,” added Professor Logan.
He called for computing science school teachers to be sent out to speak to university computing students to explain why teaching is a great job.
The minimal cost of taking some teachers out of school for a day, he suggested, could have huge benefits for Scotland if it helps persuade more graduates into the profession and boosts the technology sector in the long term.
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