The survey, conducted by the Finnish Information Society Development Centre TIEKE, shows that a large proportion of adolescents and young adults cannot use everyday web services, email, word processors or spread sheets.
Considering that today's youth live at the computer or on their smart phones and absorb information like a sponge, the results look surprising. But for the most part, computers are used for recreational purposes, for games or movies, not for tasks such as schoolwork.
"That's what we have noticed in school for many years," says Monica Johansson, the Rector of Borgå Gymnasium, a Swedish-language upper-secondary school in the town of Porvoo. "They are very good at social media and the surfing the net as they need. But, when it comes to handling a computer with schoolwork, that's where there are knowledge gaps."
Johansson believes that this is because most young people probably have not had the need to actually work with a computer before.
"I think that they can easily learn anything, there is no question about that. Our big challenge now is to be able to guide them in learning different software to enable them to take care of various school assignments," Johansson explains.
Small advances
Computers are in fact in use for more than fun and games at Borgå gymnasium, and their use is on the increase. Already in their first year, pupils can use their own laptops in class, but use so far has been limited by the lack of a wireless network to connect to. So these computers are used primarily for keeping notes.
"A day doesn't go by that I don't think about this and we are trying to get a temporary network of some kind to some classrooms. The school doesn't have enough computers of its own for everyone," Monica Johansson explains.
The City of Porvoo has acquired licenses for Microsoft's Office 365 and teachers are receiving training this autumn. Also, pupils can download it for use on their own computers, says Johansson.
Focus on basics
Computer technology is not included as a subject in the upper secondary school curriculum, but the idea is that schools teach computer skills in each subject as needed. According TIEKE's Research and Development Director Jerky Kazvin, there is wide variation in how well prepared schools are to teach computer science as its own course.
The key, according to Rector Monica Johansson, is not to teach just computer programmes, since they are more than likely to be obsolete within a few years.
"But, I do believe it is a lot easier to master new programmes if pupils have already familiarized themselves with some basic programmes. Of course, the basics of word processing, and also the basics of image processing - if these are understood well enough, then it is possible to move to the next stage. If you do not know these, then it will be kind of hard, I think."