AbstractThis paper describes a survey of computer use in secondary education carried out through the Times Network for Schools using a form of electronic questionnaire. The survey was a small part of a much larger project, the ‘Skills for the Future’ project, which is investigating the links between information technology (IT) in education and in employment. Although the nature of the sample inevitably means that the results are biased towards schools whose involvement in IT is above average, the survey does pose some interesting questions — particularly when its findings are compared and contrasted with those of the DES survey of 500 secondary schools at the end of 1985. The results of the survey indicated that Computer Studies is still dominant within the secondary curriculum, although many schools see the use of IT across the curriculum as their main goal. This paper highlights some of the factors preventing the diffusion of IT into the areas of the secondary curriculum it has seldom re