Low cost tablet PCs for Rotorua pupils | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A Rotorua school will be providing each of its students with a tablet computer device at minimal cost to parents.

Auckland's Orewa College is making iPads, laptops or their equivalent part of the compulsory stationery list for its Year 9 students from next year.

That move provoked a backlash from parents and others in the community who said it would place even more financial strain on already struggling families.

However, Rotorua's Kaitao Middle School is aiming to provide each of its 500 pupils with a tablet as the school moves its focus to e-learning.

Kaitao Middle School principal Rory O'Rourke said the school's board of trustees wanted the students to focus on e-learning in 2012 and said tablets were an essential tool.

Mr O'Rourke said the school had sourced tablets which were not iPads but would be able to access internet and a number of programmes which would complement students' learning.

The school wanted to make the tablets as affordable as possible for parents.

"At the most it would cost parents $10 a month," he said.

"We managed to strike a deal with the provider to get them at an affordable price."

Mr O'Rourke said the tablets would belong to the students who could take them home at the end of the day.

Once the students left the school the tablet would remain theirs.

"It is the future of technology," he said.

"It will be a tool to enhance educational ability in the classrooms."

He said the tablets were already being trialled in some classrooms.

"At this stage it is going well so it looks like we will be able to roll them out by next year."

The move has been praised by another Rotorua principal.

New Zealand Secondary Schools Principals Association president and principal of John Paul College, Patrick Walsh, said Kaitao Middle School "should be congratulated" on the move.

"It sounds like a really good plan."

Mr Walsh said he expected the personal computer devices to be common in most schools within the next five years.

He said John Paul College already allowed Year 13 students to bring their own laptops to school but said the school was also looking at providing tablets to students in the next year or two.

Mr Walsh said he hoped schools could work with the Government to make personal computers accessible and affordable for all parents in the future.