The revelation, which has emerged on A-Level results day, comes at a time when ministers are attempting to overhaul the way computing is taught in UK schools.
Traditional curriculums, where basic ICT skills are taught are being abandoned in favour of a new focus on teaching programming skills.
But despite efforts, computing uptake has still continued to decline – and has now fallen for ten consecutive years.
Professor Dame Athene Donald, chair of the Royal Society's Education Committee said: "It is very worrying to see a drop in the number of students studying ICT and computing for the 10th year running.
"So much of how we work, communicate and entertain ourselves is now based on computing and this is only going to increase.
"Government needs to continue looking carefully at how ICT and computing are being taught in schools and in particular the lack of specialist teachers."
The society has expressed fears about a lack of specialist computing teachers before.
Professor Steve Furber, who chaired a report into the future of school computing, told Publicservice.co.uk readers last year that Education Secretary Michael Gove's plans were "high risk", unless the government dealt with a chronic shortage of specialist computing teachers.
On releasing his report, he added: "The fact remains that the majority of teachers are not specialists and we heard from young people that they often knew more than the teacher giving the lesson."
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Matthew D'Arcy
Quelle/Source: Public Service, 15.08.2013

