Editorial

Abstract

This issue is largely devoted to a matter of great concern to many - girls in the CDT subject area, or rather, their relative absence from it! It is clear that, by tradition, girls tend not to opt for this apparently male-dominated area of the curriculu,m, an area demanding mysterious skills involving the use of heavy tools and machinery, physical strengths, technical terminology and the like - many feel that even if they did opt for this alien subject, they would be heavily outnumbered by the boys and perhaps made to feel inadequate or out of place.

In most schools, CDT departments have to compete with the traditional girls' subject areas for the few who eventually follow a CDT Course - in broad, frank terms then, at present, CDT is part of the curriculum for only 50% of mixed schools' populations!

This state of affairs is obviously totally unacceptable and contributors to this issue present details of the existmg situation and are able to prove that girls are easily as capable as boys in this subject area, and indeed able to outperform them on occasion!