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100,000 Computers in Schools / Government Survey Page 1 The Guardian (London) December 18, 1984 100,000 computers in schools / Government survey BYLINE: By PETER LARGE, Technology Correspondent LENGTH: 211 words Britain's schools now have more than 100,000 computers - more per head than any other nation and al- ready beating the target that France has set itself for 1988. The figures come from a Government survey to be published next month. The average number of comput- ers per secondary school has passed 10, though that average conceals big differences between schools that have one or two and schools that have many linked in a network. By February, more than 97 per cent of primary schools will also have at least one microcomputer. When the Government began its micros-in-schools campaign in April 1981 the Schools Inspectorate esti- mated that only half of the 5,500 state secondary schools had access to a computer. The target of at least one per school was reached by the end of 1982. The Government then extended the scheme to primary schools, raising the taxpayers' direct commitment to around pounds 14 million. Both schemes were funded on the basis of central government finding half the cost and local education au- thorities, or other local sources, finding the rest. Regional variations are said to reflect much more a varying awareness of the need for 'computer literacy.' Birmingham and Inner London have the most expensive equipment. LOAD-DATE: June 13, 2000 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH Copyright 1984 Guardian Newspapers Limited The Guardian (London) May 13, 1986 Education Guardian: Stripping an exam down to the bare essentials / Gearing exams to the demands of employers BYLINE: By MAUREEN O'CONNOR LENGTH: 1122 words 1 State two advantages of word processing for the Nelson Video business when sending out reminder letters? 2 State three things that should be covered by an insurance policy for a camping holiday. If you were not sure whether or not you had the right insurance cover, where would you go to obtain expert advice? 3 You are planning a route for a lorry making a deliveries to all the places listed below. You are starting from Cardiff and your final destination is Glasgow. Re-write the list of cities to put them into a sensible order for your journey: Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham? Answer a series of questions like these and you are in line to pass a basic test in computer literacy, life skills or geography, just three of nine tests being offered this year by the Associated Examining Board, probably the most enterprising of the GCE boards. Around 66,000 young people have just completed this summer's tests, an increase of 28,000 on last year, when only five subjects were offered. And for the first time some candidates sat the tests on the premises of employers instead of in schools and colleges. This is a development particularly pleasing to the AEB which has developed its tests in close cooperation with employers specifically to meet their needs. In fact, the basic test certificates not only indicate the mark achieved by the candidate, but also summaries the syllabus on the back, so that there can be no doubt about exactly what has been tested. It was in discussions with employers and youth training scheme managing agents as well as teachers that the AEB concluded in the late 1970s that something quite different from the traditional GCE and CSE examinations was needed. The aim was to assess transferable skills such as numeracy and literacy needed by young people moving into employment. The result was the basic test in arithmetic, launched in 1982. This consists of two parts: a 10-minute mental arithmetic test, followed by a written paper of 50 questions lasting an hour and a quarter which covers the four rules of number, fractions and decimals, simple percentages, ratios, problems involving discounts, hire purchase and VAT, and calculations of areas, volume and perimeters. Arithmetic was followed by English and life skills, launched in 1984, computer awareness and graphicacy, in 1985, and the addition of geography, science, world of work, and health, hygiene, and safety, all offered this year for the firs time. While some of these subjects are closely linked to specific areas of the traditional curriculum, like maths and English, others span traditional subject boundaries. 'You might pick up some of the skills tested by the graphicacy exam in geography, in science and maths, and in home economics. ' said George Turnbull, the AEB officer who was responsible for the development of the graphicacy test. It aims to assess students' ability to understand and use the many alternative systems of communication in everyday use, from maps and plans, to graphs and international signs and symbols found on fabrics and at the road-side. 'When we asked employers what sort of skills they wanted, we found that many in engineering wanted young people who, although they might not have studied technical drawing, were familiar with these other means of communication by diagrams, signs and symbols. It is the sort of thing which is all around us, but no one had formalised it. ' Next in line is electronics, for which the first papers should be available at the end of this summer. Peter Roberts, training manager for Marconi Command and Control Systems is an enthusiastic user of the existing basic test and a member of the working party drawing up the first electronics papers. 'We could see immediate advantages in this sort of testing, both for employers and school-leavers looking for jobs,' he said. 'It is enormously time consuming and expensive for commercial and industrial firms to give aptitude tests to 400 or 500 applicants at a time, and means, too, that young people face a positive battery of different tests with each prospective employer. There is an immediate advantage if young people can take tests of this sort in school twice a year, and the results can be made available to employers when they apply for jobs. ' According to George Turnbull, the tests are already being used by a wide range of schools and employers. He has found prep schools using the computer literacy test for the under-13s, to give them some assessment of the knowledge of computers gained right across the curriculum. Secondary schools use the test regularly for pupils right through from 13 to 16 to check progress in specific skill areas, and an increasing number of YTS trainers using the test as an indication of performance for young people who may spend two years with the firm and then have to seek another job at the end of their YTS course. Sam Seal, training and safety manager for a Harlow engineering firm, is using the test for his 55 YTS trainees on clerical and workshop work-experience. 'We are using the tests to measure progress in basic transferable skills, over the two years of YTS, and we would very much like to persuade the local schools to use them as well so that we can see test results of this sort before we recruit trainees. We see these tests fitting in well with the records of achievement that schools are now beginning to produce. ' Some schools, George Turnbull says, 'are beginning to see them as a real motivating force for youngsters who are not successful in traditional exams. Some of his industrial colleagues are prepared to go even further, and see tests such as these taking over at least part of the role of the traditional academic 16 plus examination, O level and CSE now, GCSE soon. 'O levels give us some indication of academic ability,' said Peter Roberts, of Marconi. 'But if you interview a school-leaver with a B grade in physics there is absolutely no way of telling whether he has achieved well in electronics, which is what we are interested in. He might have done well in everything but electronics, because the physics syllabus is so broad. We need something more specific. ' And on the whole, he thinks, school-leavers take far too many O levels and CSEs. They would be better off, he says, concentrating on the subjects they need for work or further education, rather than taking examinations in subjects which they could study simply for interest or enjoyment. Which is an interesting comment from an employer who admits he is hoping that developments like the AEB's basic tests will shift the emphasis of the education system ' just a little. ' LOAD-DATE: June 13, 2000 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH Copyright 1986 Guardian Newspapers Limited Page 1 The Guardian (London) January 7, 1988 Computer Guardian: Meaning machine - Is technology to be just for the elite? BYLINE: By MARTIN OWEN LENGTH: 1380 words Frank Webster and Kevin Roberts's arguments about the uselessness of teaching computer literacy (Computer, December 17) are based on the fact that it is 'sold' (an interesting enough concept in these days of compulsory curricula) by its value in the employment market. Rightly they question whether the point of sale till operative or the automated teller machine customer needs to understand any of the technology they are using. They claim that technology is de-skilling, and they say we need to know less. They suggest that we need not know anything about electricity to use the telephone. As a teacher of the teaching of 'computer literacy' I almost share that belief .. However, I start from a different premise. It may well be the current thrust of our manpower planners and followers of human capital theories of the function and purpose of the education system is to produce a stratified and disciplined labour force where a majority of the population only require a level of education suf- ficient to make them operators and consumers.
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