Informatics Education: Europe cannot afford to miss the boat

All of Europe’s citizens need to be educated in both digital literacy and informatics. Digital literacy covers fluency with computer tools and the Internet. Informatics covers the science behind information technology having its own concepts, methods, body of knowledge and open issues. It has emerged, in a role similar to that of mathematics, as a cross-discipline field. Informatics is a major enabler of technology innovation the key to the future of Europe’s economy. Europe is making good progress in including digital literacy in the curriculum. The teaching of this topic should emphasize the proper use of digital resources and cover matters of ethics such as privacy Informatics education is sorely lacking in most of Europe. This means that Europe is harming its new generation of citizens, educationally and economically. Unless Europe takes resolute steps to change the situation, it will turn into a mere consumer of information technology and miss its goal of being a major player.