The millennium computer bug could mean a longer Christmas break this year for students in Ontario.

The Ministry of Education is going to tell school boards they can take a longer break to avoid problems caused by their computers.

The education minister says each board that needs to can take as much time as necessary, as long as they follow regulations.

Dave Johnson says some boards are worried about computers that run things such as heating, lighting and door locks.

Schools in New Brunswick changed the date of Christmas break earlier this week, because of Y2K worries. Students in that province will take holidays a week late, leaving December 23 and returning January 10.

At least one other province is making Y2K school vacation plans . In Nova Scotia, the Halifax Regional School Board is discussing the issue with provincial authorities.

So, what's the Y2K problem?

Well, one of the most used and useful numbers in a computer is the date. Whether it's for banking, or planning airline flight routes, or distributing report card marks, computers have to be able to compare dates and decide which is earlier and by how much.

But in the early years of computing, in an attempt to save space and time on the less powerful machines, year dates were recognized by their last two digits only. So in the date 1999, for example, only the 99 was counted.

Of course, by using the only last two digits in a date, the year 2000 would look like the year 1900 -- "00". This wasn't seen as a big problem when the year 2000 seemed far away. But now it is a huge problem.

By the way, there are 337 days before January 1, 2000.

1. Who says some boards are worried about computers that run things such as heating, lighting and door locks?