Rebooting computer science education in the UK

Last August, Eric Schmidt lamented the sorry state of computer science education in UK schools. Since then we’ve been in discussion with various educational groups about ways we might help.

Through our grant programmes like CS4HS and RISE, we’ve long supported educational schemes of merit in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But we wanted to do more.

One key issue stood out in particular -- the lack of qualified people able to teach computing as a science. So this week, speaking at London’s Science Museum, Eric announced a partnership between Google and TeachFirst, which we hope will help - in at least a small way - address the teacher shortfall.

From Eric at Science Museum

Teach First is a UK charity which recruits exceptional graduates and puts them to work in the most challenging schools. Google has provided funds for them to train and support more than 100 first rate science teachers over the next three years, with the majority focused on computer science. Overall we anticipate this should help more than 20,000 pupils from the most disadvantaged UK communities.

It should take just a few months for the benefits to begin. After undergoing an intensive training course this summer, the first batch of Teach First recruits will be placed into schools where they can make a difference right away, whilst receiving on the job mentoring and training for a further 2 years.

And to ensure they aren’t held back by a lack of equipment, we’ll also provide each computer science recruit with a small bursary to purchase teaching aids, such as Raspberry Pi or Arduino starter kits.

Rebooting computer science education won’t be straightforward, and it will take a generation coming through schools before we see a real difference. But that’s even more reason to start today.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, External Relations, EMEA