The Raspberry Pi is just wrong on so many levels.

The BBC micro (which appears to be its inspiration) was not a cheap, entry-level computer. It was the most expensive micro on the market. This is more like the Sinclair MK14 and I predict that it will sell in around the same numbers.

The computer fraternity always bemoan the fact that ICT (Government Orwell-speak for computing) as taught in schools is just “using Word and Excel.” But that is what 90% of the pupils will need to know about computers. And you can do more programming in Excel than on this thing.

Computer programming is a job. Some call it a profession: I think it’s a skilled trade. But whatever it is, it’s not a fundamental part of schooling. We don’t demand that schools teach kids how to sell cars or lay bricks.

A better way to speed up the death-march computer projects of the 2020s would be to get kids to read books like The Mythical Man Month or Data and Reality. The technical bits of those can all be skipped as they are years out of date, but the rest is still very relevant, and in my experience, understood by a very small percentage of those involved in commissioning, managing or coding computer systems.