were some innovative initiatives to teach young people how to do simple programming. One very successful programme was the Computer Literacy Project run by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Under the CLP, a specially designed Acorn computer, known as the BBC Micro, was released in conjunction with a televised series giving instructions on how to do programming. Up to 80% of schools in the country eventually adopted the BBC Micro, which was used both to teach children elementary programming skills and as a teaching aid in other subjects. A generation of British programmers had their early exposure to computing through the use of a simple programming tool called LOGO and playing educational adventure games on the BBC Micro. By the early 1990s the subject of information and communication technology (ICT) had replaced computer science in the national curriculum, and according to many observers this was the beginning of the problem. Instead of being taught how to make a computer do clever things, students were being trained in how to use the most popular software applications to create word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Often, students accustomed to technology-rich home environments knew more than their teachers and were bored by the classes. The result has been an alarming drop in the number of students electing to study computer science at both secondary school and university level. Results from GCSE exams in the first half of 2012 showed that the number of students taking ICT courses fell for the seventh consecutive year, with a decrease of 12.5% on the previous year. This decline is filtering through to university computer science programmes, which have seen a steady decline in enrolment figures since the dot com bubble burst in 2001.


Something clearly needs to be done, and


recent studies by the Royal Society, the BCS, the Association for Learning Technology and Nesta have hammered home this message. Perhaps the most high profile proponent of the need for change was Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, who declared in a lecture delivered in Edinburgh last April that the UK is throwing away its computer heritage, saying: “I was flabbergasted to learn that today computer science isn’t even taught as standard in UK schools”.


GLOBAL ISSUE The problem does not seem to be unique to the UK, however. Nations around the world are waking up to the fact that computers are now embedded in every aspect of our daily lives and the demand for skilled people to write software and design new systems is outstripping supply by a frightening margin.


14 December 2012 | Volume 22 – Issue 4


In the US, futurist Dr Frey Said forecasts that by 2020 half of the computer programming jobs will go unfilled due to skills shortages. That poses a serious security risk, according to a retired programmer whose career included writing computer systems for the US military during the Vietnam war. Robert E Johnston told journalist Claire Connelly that as his generation of experienced programmers retires and dies there is no one available to fill the gap, putting critical defence and security systems at risk. Governments in the developing world know only too well that the innovation and entrepreneurship needed to boost their economies requires computer and science skills which they struggle to provide in the face of poverty and social issues. By contrast, the Tiger economies of Asia that


are already producing thousands of science, math and engineering graduates each year are embracing the challenges of developing computer skills more quickly. In South Korea,


Computers are now embedded in every aspect of our daily lives and the demand for skilled people to write software and design new systems is outstripping supply by a frightening margin


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