Pascal as the Driving Force of Informatics Education in Schools in Poland

Abstract

The first books in Polish about the Pascal programming language appeared in the late 1970s, and were soon followed by a Polish translation of Niklaus Wirth's book "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs." At that time, many efforts were made to prepare teachers to teach informatics in schools, and Pascal was one of the topics taught, often with no access to computers. The situation improved significantly after the first informatics curriculum was approved for schools by the Ministry of National Education (MEN) in 1985, in response to the increasing number of microcomputers in schools and students' interest in programming. As a confirmation of the conclusions drawn from the discussion in the ABACUS magazine (1984) on "Which is the best programming language for a first course in computer science," Pascal very quickly became the basic programming language in Polish schools as a tool for practicing algorithmics. The first informatics textbook was published in 1988 and in it, after a short Logo course, Pascal took the main place as a language for developing solutions to algorithmic problems in the form of computer programs. In the following years, many teaching aids were developed for programming education in schools, as well as other aids, e.g., an authoring system, programmed in Pascal. Pascal was the primary programming language in informatics education until the end of the first decade of the 21st century, subsequently replaced by Python. It is interesting that Polish winners of national and international Olympiads in Informatics for many years used Pascal, demonstrating the enormous professional values of this language. In this article we present in detail, among others things: the role and influence of Pascal on the development and level of informatics education in schools in Poland, as well as other scientific activities and initiatives supported by this language. Many students educated in this technical and mental environment found their place in professional development teams in the best computer and technology corporations, and evidently most of them joined the national working force.