Computer studies at Scottish secondary schools are facing a crisis as the number of teachers in the subject has dropped to its lowest level in five years, according to the latest Scottish Government data.
Figures from the government’s annual census of Scotland’s teachers show there are now only 550 computing studies teachers across the country, a loss of twenty-eight CS teachers since 2023, adding to the overall loss of forty-five Scottish computing teachers since 2020.
Over the last seventeen years, Scottish schools have lost 216 computing science professionals, with the 2023 intake for initial teacher education in computing science sitting at a mere sixteen, the lowest number entering the profession on record.
Other key STEM subjects have also been hit hard in recent years, with the number of physics teachers in Scotland falling by 18 in 2024, and mathematics seeing a loss of 32 teachers.
By comparison, Scottish schools lost twenty-five English teachers and only nine music teachers over the last year, although they managed to gain an incredible forty-eight PE teachers.
“This critically low number of computing science teachers, with a loss of 216 professionals over the past 17 years, makes it evident that no single solution will suffice,” said Toni Scullion, a computing science teacher and co-lead of Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science.
“We need a series of strategic interventions targeting various potential computing science teachers across multiple pathways. While this situation is deeply concerning, I remain optimistic that inspiring fifty new computing science teachers into the profession each year and creating a sustainable pipeline is entirely achievable.”
In its Digital Economy Skills Action Plan, Skills Development Scotland, the Scottish Government body, acknowledged the growing burden placed on secondary schools, saying that an undersupply of computing science teachers had added to the decline of more than 9,000 pupils taking up the subject in the last decade, despite a ‘refresh’ of the curriculum.
That report highlighted that around thirty-six schools across Scotland lacked a dedicated computing teacher, with the divide more pronounced in rural areas, although another report from Reform Scotland in May last year said that sixty-six secondary schools have no computing science teacher, amounting to one out of eight Scottish secondary school children.
However, despite the general decline in student uptake, data from the Scottish Qualifications Authority shows that the number of students sitting computing studies exams has been on the increase over the past few years, with over 3,700 pupils taking a Higher exam in the subject in 2024, with more than 700 reaching Advanced Higher level.
In his Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review, published in 2020, the Government’s former chief entrepreneur, Mark Logan, was already pointing to a critical need for more to be done to encourage those with relevant experience and specialisation to become computing science teachers.
According to that report, secondary-level CS teachers in Scotland typically did not hold a relevant degree qualification, and were often co-opted from other disciplines, such as business studies, to teach computing science, having a knock-on effect on both the syllabus and pupil’s learning.
That issue is not helped by the fact that while Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programmes for STEM subjects like maths, chemistry, and physics are available at eight universities, those studying for a degree in teaching computing science are limited to three universities.
“Expanding access to PGDE computing science across more universities in different geographical areas would be a crucial first step. Exploring innovative partnerships between existing PGDE providers and other universities would be worth exploring to create these opportunities,” continued Scullion.
“It would be great to see all colleges and universities featuring computing science teaching as a potential career option to undergraduates.”
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Last year, Mark Logan took aim at Scotland’s education system, telling a meeting of Holyrood’s Education, Children and Young People Committee that the country was ‘not making the progress that we should be’ in computing science in schools.
Highlighting the dearth of teachers in the subject, Logan told the committee that recruitment rates in computing studies had reached ‘crisis’ levels, with numbers dropping off radically in a few short years.
Added to that, the current crop of computer science teachers are reaching retirement age faster than those of other sciences, with Logan pointing out that there are approximately eight times as many computing science teachers over 55 as under 25 years old.
“Inevitably, if there are no teachers, you cannot teach the subject,” said Logan.
“If you intersect the different aspects—the fall in recruitment, the demographic time bomb, the fact that a lot of departments have one computing science teacher, which makes them very vulnerable, and so on—I think that it is fair to say that we are in difficulty.”
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