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The Roehampton Annual Computing Education Report

This report from the University of Roehampton looks at how many pupils achieved GCSE and A-level computing qualifications in 2017. It shows that the revolution in computing education in English schools is faltering - and that fewer children are getting the digital skills that employers and the government say are vital.

ICT (Information and Communication Technology) - which was widely derided as being no more than a course in Microsoft Office skills - is being phased out of the curriculum and disappears after this summer as an exam subject. 

But its replacement at GCSE and A-level is the far more challenging computer science. 

The report says this subject is proving very hard - both for the students and for the schools which need to find the staff to teach it. 

In 2017, just over half of all schools in England offered the subject at GCSE level - smaller schools and those in the independent sector were less likely to give pupils the chance to study computer science. 

But overall, only 12% of all students choose to take the subject. It is also proving less attractive to girls than ICT - they make up only 20% of GCSE entrants. 

Entries by pupils from poorer backgrounds are also lower. The typical computer science entrant, says the report, is “academically strong, mathematically able, likely to be taking triple science, from a relatively affluent family, and overwhelmingly likely to be male (even if the smaller number of girls taking the subject do better in the exam)”. 

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