Letters | AI and blockchain classes may be cutting edge, but schools should not forget the ABCs of typing

The budget has allocated a substantial sum for secondary schools to upgrade information technology equipment and classes

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Schools should not forget about typing, which is still an important skill for IT jobs. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 9:09am, 10 Mar 2019Updated: 5:19pm, 10 Mar 2019

Under the latest Hong Kong budget, each secondary school taking part in the IT Innovation Lab in Secondary Schools Programme will be granted HK$1 million to buy information technology equipment and to run activities to deepen the students’ knowledge of cutting-edge IT, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and big data. These technologies may be new to many teachers and students, and the computing curriculum will have to be changed to prepare the students for the future.

Despite these changes, traditional skills are important as a foundation for engaging with IT. When I was in Secondary Four and Five, a teacher from career guidance team, which is now called life planning, encouraged us to learn typing, an important skill for our careers. I went on to take a summer course that included typing after sitting the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination.

However, nowadays, many students are not taught typing at school, even though this is an important skill for those in clerical and IT jobs, as most data is inputted via keyboard.

As schools improve their IT facilities, they should not forget to teach students typing skills.

Felix Mak, Kowloon Bay