Editorial: Parents need help to carry iPad load

That pen and paper will one day become old-fashioned is inevitable, given the technological advances being made on what seems like a daily basis. It does make sense, then, for children to be using laptops or iPads at school.
Schools, like businesses and every other sector, have to move with the times. Everything, including education, evolves and will continue to do so.
It's not so outlandish then, for a school - in this case, Auckland's Orewa College - to include iPads, laptops or their equivalent on the compulsory stationery list for Year 9 students from next year. It was only a matter of time really and, of course, schools will never have enough funding to be able to provide one for each student, which means parents will have to foot the bill.
School is already costly and this is another financial burden so, with many people doing it very tough financially, any school which is going to make it compulsory for students to have an iPad or a laptop needs first to have some form of financial plan in place. Many people simply can't afford to just go out and buy each of their children an iPad or laptop, so schools need to consider fundraising, sponsorship or long-term payment options.
Orewa College parents have been given some six months' notice but this may not be enough for people who don't have enough disposable income to be able to save the hundreds an iPad or laptop would cost.
The Auckland school won't be the last to consider making such technology compulsory, so it would make sense for the sector to come up with a national plan and give parents plenty of warning.
Either that, or the Government needs to find extra funds for schools to perhaps subsidise the purchase of such equipment, or the Government could cut a deal with a retail outlet. Bulk buying would surely be more cost effective than single purchases.
Today's children are growing up in a much more technologically advanced world than their parents and, whether older generations like it or not, children need to know how to operate the tools of this modern world.
We just have to make sure the extra burden this will place on their parents is bearable.