Informatics: First Contact

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When do European pupils have their first contact with Informatics? When does the road to mastering the science that makes the digital world possible start?

As recommended in the joint ACM Europe/Informatics Europe report "Informatics education: Europe cannot afford to miss the boat", "all students should benefit from education in Informatics as an independent scientific subject, studied both for its intrinsic intellectual and educational value and for its applications to other disciplines".

This map details at which age students across Europe currently experience their first contact with Informatics. This information is independent on whether or not the courses are mandatory or elective; see Informatics: Availability of Courses for more details on this. For countries with different types of secondary schools, data is given for schools leading to university entrance qualification.

The scale is as follows:

• Kindergarten - Before primary school
• Primary - In some countries, primary school starts at the age of 5 and 6
• Lower Secondary - After primary school
• Higher Secondary - In some countries, the typical age range is 14-18

In Estonian schools, there exist different competing labels for Digital Literacy with slightly different meanings: Digitaalne Kirjaoskus (Digital Literacy), Infokirjaoskus (Information Literacy) and Meediakirjaoskus (Media Literacy). Informatics is refered to as Informaatika (Informatics) and Arvutiõpetus (Computer Studies).