It’s not a free gift like Labour’s. This is the background to the PN’s proposal for tablets for schoolchildren and teachers.

From an interview (link below) with St Paul’s Bay Primary School teacher Mark Azzopardi, published by Daily eDventures – Anthony Salcito’s 365-day Look at Global Heroes in Education:

What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome to ensure students are receiving a quality education?

The biggest obstacle is when you find certain people at the Education Department who try to stop what you are doing. These people just care about keeping their positions and having good pay. They do not care about the well-being of the children.

Fortunately, at the same Education Department there are other people who give their absolute support, amongst these both the Director Generals and the Minister for Education.

What is your country doing right to support education?

In my country we are lucky to have a government with a very clear vision about education. This government is investing a lot of money into education. Apart from building new state-of-the-art schools, my country is continuously investing a lot on IT and technology in schools.

I am very happy to see that education is the top priority of our Prime Minister and the Government.

(…)

What is the best opportunity for innovation in education?

The biggest and best opportunity is that, thanks to technology, all the world has become like one country. There are no barriers.

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What educational “trend” do you think is helping students? Is there a trend that is getting in the way of learning?

The use of computers, Internet and interactive whiteboards in classes is surely helping students a lot. What I would do is to use a non-educational trend such as social networks and turn it into an educational trend to enhance learning.

If you could give one educational tool to every child in the world, what would it be? Why?

I would give a tablet with Internet access to each child. All children would have a whole world just a click away.