1989 Volume 13 Issue 2_3 Pages 101-103
Keeping in mind the need to improve secondary education in order to be able to meet the needs of the coming advances in society and of citizens in the future, computer education and in-service training are considered to critical issues of national importance in the Netherlands today. A survey completed by the Ministry of Education in 1985 revealed that 2,000 lower secondary schools and over 90% of all lower secondary vocational schools had at least one microcomputer. However it also showed that in terms of hardware transfer-ability was a major problem. In the same survey, 65% of the schools said that they were offering instruction in informatics as an independent subject while 30% said that they were using computers as tools for teaching/learning of other subject matter. As of February 1988, 6,000 teachers had received training in computer education. This represents approximately 15% of the total number of teachers in the Netherlands. In addition to outlining current trends in computer education in the Netherlands, the author also discusses the implications of the development of an informatics curriculum within the Japanese educational system.
