“The Nationalist Party’s pledge to provide tablet computers to students in primary and secondary school will represent another significant leap in the quality of our children’s education. Our initiative is intended to better equip our students with the tools necessary to fulfill their aspirations in an increasingly technological world,” PN said.

In a press conference today, Clyde Puli maintained that “the provision of free tablet computers to all students represents the next natural step in the government’s successful Smart Learning strategy. The strategy is designed to bring the very latest and best technology to bear on the education of our children. In implementing the strategy, Nationalist governments have already provided laptops to state school teachers (4,200 in total) and installed 6,400 computers and 2,600 interactive white boards in state school classrooms.”

Claudio Grech added that the Nationalist Party’s proposal is “not about giving away free tablets. In fact, teachers and learning support assistants lie at the very heart of the initiative and the devices shall be fully integrated into our children’s education.”

“The Nationalist Party recognises that education represents an investment in the future. Education is vital in securing more and better jobs going forward.” Claudio Grech referred to EU studies which anticipate that by 2015, 90% of new European jobs across all service sectors will require ICT knowledge. Further studies reveal that every ICT job generates another two jobs in the economy and that average ICT wages are set to double over the next 4 years.

“As such, insofar as our tablet initiative shall take the quality of our education to a new and higher level, it should not be dismissed as a cost but as a sound investment which will yield phenomenal returns in the form of increased government revenues collected from more and better paying jobs,” he said.

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