The programme was administered by the Council for Educational Technology in London, but the directorate operated, unusually, from a semi-detached house on the Coach Lane Campus of the then Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University).
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.
Each member of staff created correspondence (see Old Computers link below) on a handheld word processor, a Microwriter, designed by Cy Endfield.
[4] The aim of the programme was to help schools to prepare children for life in a society in which devices and systems based on microelectronics are commonplace and pervasive.
It was common to see written on various books and leaflets that the aims of the programme were to 'promote, within the school curriculum, the study of microelectronics and its effects, and to encourage the use of the technology as an aid to teaching and learning'.
The focus for the training was split into four 'domains': Originally conceived as a programme to develop secondary education, it was soon perceived that many primary schools were ready to adopt new methodologies.
[8] HMI reported "The MEP years will be remembered by those directly involved, and by most of those on its periphery, as a time of creativity and fruitful development.