Number of CompSci GCSE students dropping is probablty in first couple of years everyone chooisng opions thought it would be the same as the old ICT course but then as peopel were doing it they (and probably their schools) realized it was much harder with resulting lower grade expectations so people steered (or were steered) away from it towards "easier" subjects.
When my sons had GCSE option choices the ICT teacher at the open evening did a big sales pitch for ICT which basically amounted to (i) its a BTEC so its worth 2 GCSEs and (ii) its mainly coursework which you can submit as many times as you want until you get the grade you want - so choose ICT and you can almost guarantee you'll get a BTEC equivalent to two GCSE grade As. I think there was also a line of "your just building web pages and posting videos to YouTube so its fun".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
