Government announces £20,000 computer science teaching scholarships

The Department for Education has announced a new scholarship scheme which aims to create the next generation of teachers capable of inspiring students to study computer science.

The scheme, which is backed by industry heavyweights including IBM, Microsoft, BT and Facebook, will give a £20,000 scholarship to 50 would-be computer science teachers in England. 

“Computer science is not just a rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging subject. It is also vital to our success in the global race,” said Michael Gove, education secretary.

“If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee we need the very best computer science teachers in our classrooms.”

The British Computer Society (BCS) and the Chartered Institute for IT will working alongside schools, universities and employers to support the learners, through mentoring programmes and other development opportunities.

“Our vision is for every secondary school to have outstanding computer science teachers,” said Bill Mitchell, director of BCS Academy of Computing.

The scheme will be run by the BCS in conjunction with the Teaching Agency on behalf of the Department for Education.

The announcement comes amid growing tensions over IT teaching in the UK, where there is concern over whether the new draft ICT Programme of Study (PoS) will be developed without sufficient consultation.

Teachers, education advisors and members of the IT industry have already told V3 they are concerned their views will not be heard during the reform process of the new draft ICT curriculum.

The PoS will cover the IT curriculum for all five to 16 year olds.

On Thursday foreign secretary William Hague also announced plans to try and develop the next generation of cyber experts for the UK to protect the nation from the growing risk of cyber attacks.

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