ABSTRACT
Computer studies, or what is in practice often synonymous, computer science, has come to be a distinct school subject in England and Wales and Northern Ireland . It is not to be confused with informatics', which seems to have originated in the USSR, but which has been espoused most enthusiastically in France and which presupposes the existence of fundamental laws, for the communication and processing of information, which require investigation and understanding. Inevitably there will be elements of computer studies which impinge on informatics, but in the pragmatic manner of the education systems of the United Kingdom (apart from Scotland) computer studies has not necessarily sought the formal justification of being a distinct discipline, but it has been introduced into schools in one way or another because teaching children about computers is believed to be important. This teaching has developed a range of syllabuses whose general outlines will be given later and which include less detailed studies appropriate for all children, embodied in the slogan of the British Computer Society 'Computer Education For All'. In Scotland, an interim report published in 1969 was in favour of an 'Introductory Course for the great majority of pupils', but felt that computer studies should not be developed as a subject discipline in its own right.
