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Education Minister Launches 2001 Census Project
For Schools

Diary date :14.00 hours, Monday 19 March
St Columba's High School, Dunfermline

Education Minister Jack McConnell, with John Randall, Registrar General for Scotland, is to launch the Schools Census Project, an internet-based scheme to give 8 to 14-year-old pupils experience of using previous Census data to benefit their mathematical, IT, environmental, and social history knowledge, at St Columba's High School, Dunfermline, on Monday, March 19 at 14.00 hours. Representatives of the other main political parties have also been invited to participate in the launch, in keeping with the all-party approach to the 2001 Census, which takes place on 29 April.

You are invited to be represented at a photo-call when the Minister, the Registrar General, and St Columba's pupils will journey back through some previous Census data and see how the statistics provide a picture of how Scotland has changed over the years.

Notes To Editors/Picture Editors:

There are 24 activities in all, 12 covering mathematics and 12 covering environmental studies. Information-handling, percentages, and ratio are among the maths activities, while the environmental studies look at how to use historical evidence, developing social responsibility, and how to collect and analyse database material. Overall, the project is designed to raise awareness among children of the national Census which takes place on 29 April, 2001.

Learning and Teaching Scotland commissioned education writer George Wilson to produce the workbook activities, and the General Register Office for Scotland - which is responsible for carrying out the Census - produced the 320 data sets which cover all 32 Scottish local authority areas from which pupils can extract information relating to both national and local statistics, and a number of articles featuring the national Census since 1801.