Some 47,130 GCSE students received ICT exam results yesterday, down from over 70,000 last year, which the sector skills council warned was an "enormous" drop.

It was "disappointing" to see the "continued decline" in the subject's popularity, e-skills said. The news bodes badly for A-Level student numbers, , albeit much less severe. The number of A-Level computing and ICT students fell nearly two percent to approximately 16,000.

Karen Price, chief executive at e-skills, said the decline in GCSE numbers was "especially concerning given the economic importance of IT to the UK economy".

"This year e-skills UK research showed a record number of people employed in IT and increasing employer demand for people to enter a sector predicted to require a further half-million new entrants over the next five years."

There needed to be an "urgent reform" of the IT curriculum, Price said, so that the subject catches the attention of teenagers.