London schools ‘failing to create the next Bill Gates’

London could miss out on creating the next Bill Gates because so few children are studying computer science, experts warned today.

Fewer than 400 pupils in the capital took an A-level in computer science last year; almost four times that number took an A-level in PE.

In eight boroughs, including Camden, Hackney and Southwark, no students studied the subject.

Theo Blackwell, of campaign group Next Gen Skills, said: “We are without a doubt missing out on creating people like Bill Gates. We are missing out on teaching a whole generation of real creators. This is holding back technology and digital creative industries in London.”

Mr Blackwell said too many pupils study Information and Communication Technology instead of computing, where they are taught how to use computer programmes rather than how to create them. Nationally, only seven per cent of A-level computing students are female, or just 241 girls, about 20 of them in London.

Mr Blackwell said: “We are going through a digital revolution and people will look back in 20 years and say ‘why did we not educate anyone who can do computer programming?’

“Those people who do know how to do it are all self-taught. There is no strategy or underlying thought across the 32 boroughs saying ‘this is really fundamentally important to us’.”

The warning came after it was revealed that more than half of ICT teachers are only educated to A-level standard in the subject.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is overhauling the ICT curriculum to include lessons designed by industry and universities. He said the existing curriculum leaves children “bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers”.