Google to give 15,000 Raspberry Pi boards to UK schools

The announcement was made today at Chesterton Community College in Cambridge, where a handful of children were given a coding lesson by Google's chairman Eric Schmidt and Raspberry Pi co founder Eben Upton. "We hope that our new partnership with Google will be a significant moment in the development of computing education in the UK," said Upton. "We believe that this can turn around the year on year decline in the numbers and skill sets of students applying to read computer science at university." To help ensure teachers and children get the best out of the devices, Google and Raspberry Pi are working with six educational partners, including Code Club, Computing at School, Generating Genius and Coderdojo. Speaking about the giveaway in Cambridge today, Schmidt commented: "Britain's innovators and entrepreneurs have changed the world - the telephone, television and computers were all invented here. "We have been working to encourage the next generation of computer scientists and we hope this donation to British school pupils will help drive a new wave of innovation."