The Microelectronics Education Programme was developed asby the impactDepartment offor microlectronicsEducation gatheredand pace during the late 1970s,Science when the Prime Minister at the time, Jim Callaghan asked each government department to draw up an action plan to meet the challenge of new technologies.<ref>http://www.edtechhistory.org.uk/history/the_1980s/MEP.html</ref> Whilst the prior programme, the [[National Development Programme in Computer Aided Learning]], wascovered onlyschools, partlycolleges, focusseduniversities onand schoolstraining establishments, MEP was specifically aimed at secondary schools in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, although later (a primary school programme was added in 1982). Following a change of government in 1979, Keith Joseph as Education Secretary finally approved the proposal in 1980 and in March a four-year programme for schools, costing £9 million. was announced by the Under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and Science, Mr Neil MacFarlane. <ref>Fothergill (1988) Implications of New Technology for the School Curriculum (London, Kogan Page)</ref>
