She had seen them, panicked and executed an unnecessary and hazardous swerve to avoid them. She had ended up on all fours on the pavement, tights snagged and her worst forebodings about modern youth amply confirmed.

Perhaps old ladies have to live with the risk of ending up in the flight path of boisterous schoolboys. But they should not have to worry about them in school time.

The obvious conclusion, of course, is that they were playing truant. In the old days it was always relatively easy for a determined child in a big school to go AWOL and get away with it. Taking registers at the start of every lesson, and laboriously cross-referencing them at the end of the day is hopelessly time-consuming and never foolproof. But I thought the new technology had done away with all of that.

There are certainly plenty of electronic registration systems on the market, ranging from smart cards which pupils pop in a hole-in-the-wall or swipe across a scanner on their way into class, to Bromcom’s very sophisticated “electronic attendance registration system” (ears). This allows the teacher to register the class on a miniature computer. The data is transmitted by radio to a central computer which can then instantly spot any irregularities.

The biggest problem, however, is not how to keep tabs on children, but what to do to stop them wanting to bunk off. School life must be peculiarly dire if these kids prefer to occupy the gloomy days of winter riding the escalators in Debenhams, sharing self-conscious ciggies, and seeing how long they can make a can of Coke last. How can school be made interesting enough to stop them voting with their feet?

A nice woman in Dixons reckoned she had the answer. Truants are the bane of her life. They would spend all day trying to get the hang of whatever programs, however dull, happened to be up and running. “If they had computers in school,” the assistant argued, “they wouldn’t need to come in here, would they?” She is probably right. All the research, whether negative studies of computer addiction or investigations into how IT can improve motivation, confirms just how boys relish their time at the keyboard. If traditional lessons can’t keep them off the streets, why not set aside an area in school where they can compute to their hearts’ content? I know an old lady and a harassed Dixons assistant who would be delighted.

Details of registration systems and IT Works, research on IT from NCET, Milburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry CV4 7JJ. Bromcom, 417 Bromley Road. Downham, Bromley, Kent BR1 4PJ.