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More than 70% of parents say kids aren’t taught coding at school
Despite a growing need for tech skills, many parents claim coding isn’t taught in schools, research from the Raspberry Pi Foundation has found
Many schools aren’t teaching coding, despite 60% of parents thinking it’s an important skill for children to have, according to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
The education charity found more than 70% of parents claim their children aren’t being taught how to code as part of their normal school lessons.
“With the rapid advances in AI [artificial intelligence] technologies, it is more important than ever that every young person develops the skills, knowledge and confidence to understand and create with tech,” said Philip Colligan, CEO at Raspberry Pi Foundation.
In 2014, the UK government reformed the computing curriculum, shifting the focus towards teaching children “computational thinking” and programming skills, while phasing out the old ICT curriculum.
While this move was intended to prepare young people for an increasingly digital future, technology changes at such a pace that it can be difficult to keep teaching up to date, especially with teachers already struggling with the delivery of tech lessons.
Not only do parents believe coding is an important skill for their kids to know, more than half also believe it should be a mandatory subject to learn all the way through school to GCSE level.
Around 60% of parents also said they think their children are more likely to have a good career in the future if they learn to code at school, with more than half concerned they wouldn’t be able to help with coding homework.
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- When asked their opinions on the growing use of AI, girls expressed concerns about possible biases it will perpetuate, while boys were worried about cyber security.
- A lack of hands-on learning could prevent children from being interested in science and tech careers in the future.
But the type and quality of science, technology, engineering and maths learning varies regionally and from school to school depending on a number of factors including access to resources and teacher training.
To ease this, Raspberry Pi Foundation called for Code Clubs to be more widely introduced in schools and libraries to fill the gaps currently left by schools.
Supported by the charity, there are already around 2,000 Code Clubs in the UK, which have helped millions of children learn to code since their inception.
But in light of the foundation’s recent paper, urging that coding is still an important skill for children to learn even in the age of AI, Raspberry Pi Foundation announced the intention to teach 10 million children to code globally by 2035.
“Attending a Code Club is a fantastic way for young people to get hands-on and creative with digital technologies in a safe and fun environment,” said Colligan. “We also know that attending a Code Club develops wider life skills like confidence, resilience, problem-solving and communication.
“There are already over 2,000 Code Clubs meeting regularly in schools and libraries across the UK, and we want to see that number grow,” he said. “We think that every community should have a Code Club. The Raspberry Pi Foundation supports schools, libraries and other community organisations to set up and run Code Clubs at no cost to the government, the venues or parents.”
These free clubs are run by volunteers using resources provided by the charity to help teach young people different coding languages.
Tackling misconceptions
Janine Kirk, a computer science teacher at the King’s C of E Academy in Stoke on Trent, said Code Clubs can be a great way to tackle some of the misconceptions that exist surrounding the types of skills required for a tech career or the people that pursue this path.
“There can be some misconceptions that coding is only for boys, or it’s only for students who excel at maths – but having run a Code Club myself for over 10 years, I can tell you it really is accessible for everyone,” she said.
“I see my students being creative with code, and translating the most imaginative ideas into apps, games, animations, music and digital art,” said Kirk. “They are working together, gaining confidence and a sense of belonging with new friends, and building their skills in problem solving and teamwork. I have been inspired by this campaign to set up a Code Club in six other schools in the Three Spires Trust.”
