Computing Science Summary Report: Scottish Government Computing Science Meeting Series: March 2026

Introduction

The following summary report reflects recent discussions with key education stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities facing the delivery of Computing Science education in Scotland’s schools.

Over the course of a short meeting series, stakeholders from across the education system with an interest in Computing Science education, came together to explore the issues facing the delivery of the subject in Scotland’s schools. Discussions were centred around four key themes:

• Computing Science teacher recruitment and retention
• Teacher professional learning and development
• School infrastructure
• Subject attractiveness

This summary report draws together the key themes of these discussions with additional evidence provided by Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS), stakeholder views, and survey findings from children and young people. The report seeks to set these views within the broader context of an evolving national education policy landscape. It is worth emphasising that this report is not intended to provide an exhaustive review of Computing Science education in Scotland, but rather to reflect the challenges and opportunities which emerged through this meeting series. While this report is focused solely on the delivery of Computing Science and associated qualifications, the findings may have relevance for other school subjects facing similar challenges.

The Scottish Government thanks everyone involved, in particular those who participated in the meeting series and those who presented, STACS, and all the pupils who completed our pupil survey.