The New Zealand Education Ministry is putting $6.5 million a year for three years into its laptops for secondary teachers program which it expects will fund between 8,000 and 14,000 computers, according to a New Zealand Herald article. The new program is open to all permanent full-time secondary teachers and will include iBooks among the laptops.
The program gave principals the choice of Apple or Toshiba laptops. The latter has dominated the sales of portable computers into New Zealand’s secondary schools, the Herald reports. While Apple is strong in the education sector at primary and tertiary level, its share of the secondary school market is “much” lower, running at about 10 per cent, the article adds.
The government will meet two thirds of the total cost of leasing a laptop for three years, with schools meeting the other third. Schools are also expected to fund related professional development for those teachers from within their existing operating budgets.