More girls are taking computing science at both National 5 and Higher levels in Scotland but the share of entries remains stubbornly low, according to the latest education stats.
New data from Scotland’s science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education statistics shows that girls taking National 5 computing science have risen by 1.8% and by 2.2% for Highers in the last four years.
But of the 6,445 entries for National 5 computing science this year, just 1,465 were girls, compared to 4,980 for boys, highlighting a consistent trend whereby around only one in five entries are female.
At Higher level, the pattern is similar, the Qualifications Scotland figures show. Of the 3,990 entries in 2026, just 830 were girls, compared to 3,155 for girls, the evidence shows.
That is despite the fact that when girls do enter the subject – at both National 5 and Higher levels – they outperform boys.
Statistical analysis shows that the A grade pass rate for National 5 was 80.9% for girls this year, a fall from 88.3% last year, but still better than boys at 74.2%.
And at Higher level, the A grade pass rate was 83.9% for girls, compared to 76.8% for boys.
Of all the STEM subjects, however, computing science remains the lowest by entries at National 5 for females, compared to chemistry (52.5%), physics (26.3%), biology (65.7%) and maths (48.5%). The trend is similar at Higher level, indicating a persistent and long-term underrepresentation of females in the subject.
Toni Scullion, computing science teacher and founder of the national Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) group, said: “The latest SQA statistics are another strong showcase of the hard work and talent of pupils and teachers in computing science across Scotland. In 2026, computing science recorded the highest overall pass rate of any traditional STEM subject at both Higher and Advanced Higher – ahead of chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology at both levels, and only narrowly behind chemistry at National 5.
“This attainment is a real cause for celebration for our subject, and a strong indicator for parents and guardians that this is a subject where their children can achieve great success. It’s important to recognise that while this is good news for the subject and should be celebrated, computing science still faces a long-standing issue with the gender gap.
“It has the largest gender gap compared to other traditional STEM subjects, and has done so for years. What the data makes clear, though, is that this is not an attainment gap – it’s an engagement gap. In every single year from 2022 to 2026, at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher, female pupils who take computing science out-perform their male peers, both on top grades and on overall pass rate.”
She added: “This pattern shows up across most STEM subjects, most years – but computing science is the only one of the five with a perfect record on both measures, at every level, every year. Female pupils who study computing science do not just keep pace with male pupils – they lead. The problem is how few get the chance to try it in the first place: computing science has the largest gender gap compared to any other traditional STEM subject and has done for years.”
Other problems stymying progress include uneven provision of computing science as a subject at secondary school level across the country. Some schools offer the subject in S1, S2 and S3; others have no access to it at all.
And there is also a historic low in terms of computing science teacher numbers in schools. There were 522.7 FTE computing science teachers in Scottish secondary schools in 2025, historically the lowest figure on record – down from 766 back in 2008, and lower again than the 550 recorded just the year before.
There is, however, cause for optimism. Recent data shows that the number of students starting to train to become computing science teachers is rising. The 2025 provisional PGDE (the qualification for teaching) intake figures show computing science intake rose from 16 to 31 student teachers – a 93.75% jump, its biggest single-year increase
since the Scottish Government began publicly recording these figures back in 2016, and only the second increase on record at all (the other was in 2018).
Scullion added: “That rise wasn’t just computing’s own best year, either – it was the largest single-year increase recorded by any of the five STEM subjects across the whole 2022–2025 period. Early indications from this year’s
PGDE entries also point to this increase continuing, rather than being a one-off spike.”