While schools transitioned to online learning during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, over half of educators said, in a recent nationwide survey, that their students are not learning about cybersecurity.
Only 45 percent of the more than 900 K-12 educators say their students are learning about the subject, according to the CYBER.ORG survey, administered in April and May of 2020 by the EdWeek Research Center. The survey included educators from all 50 states except Hawaii and the District of Columbia, and included teachers, principals, and district leaders. Elementary, middle, and high school educators were surveyed.
While 75 percent of educators said their students had a “medium or high” level of interest in learning about cybersecurity career paths, more than two-thirds (67 percent) said their students have a low level of awareness of steps needed to obtain a cybersecurity job.
Less than 10 percent of educators say their students have learned about artificial intelligence or cyber law in the past year.
Only a third of educators in the highest poverty districts (33 percent) say their students receive cybersecurity education. In the wealthiest districts, where less than a quarter the students are low-income, over half of educators say their students receive cybersecurity education (56 percent).
