Mr. James Whelton:

I endured the product of the Department of Education and Skills for the majority of my life to date. I was not mentally ready to go near it again. Many teachers and principals in today's educational system remain passionate about education and are stepping forward in CoderDojos. We have opened up to teachers who want to learn how to code and observe our teaching style. We found that a collaborative environment, with children helping each other, more project orientation and an emphasis on fun rather than delivering computer science education, fosters a better and faster learning outcome. Going through the Department for real change in a short amount of time is the wrong approach. I recently spoke about this at the Irish Primary Principals' Network conference. One will waste one's time dealing with the Department as a whole not because it is full of time wasters but because not everyone will be interested. It is important to find the self-selecting and passionate teachers who will champion change. Their enthusiasm is infectious. In achieving change in education over a short period, the grassroots level is most effective in Ireland. It is a matter of identifying these characters and working with them.

The question of gender imbalance in coding is a big issue in technology in general. It is regularly acknowledged at conferences that only between 7% and 9% of all programmers are female. People are scratching their heads about it. A number of initiatives have been attempted around the world, such as female only programming sessions to attract more women over the age of 18 into programming and Black Girls Code, which is a San Francisco based programme aimed at getting underprivileged African American girls into coding. We have seen in CoderDojo that for some reason programming attracts more males than females.

This is reflected in a lot of sessions. However, between 20% and 40% are female, which given the figure for females involved in the industry, is quite good to see. We are seeing more females in programming sessions and classes in respect of the industry. In several locations we see a 50:50 split if not more females in sessions, more so abroad for some reason. New York, for example, has more females than males. I cannot talk as a girl and have no future plans to become one. I am still bemused as ever.