iPad initiative for pupils in WA

A few Year 1 and 2 students just starting school have been put straight onto iPads to boost their reading and maths skills, under a new West Australian government program.

Premier Colin Barnett and education minister, Liz Constable, visited West Beechboro Primary School in Perth's northwest on Wednesday to see children being taught the new touch technology.

They announced the government's Early Childhood iPad Initiative, which will provide nearly 900 iPads to 17 WA schools as part of a $1 million program.

Dr Constable said iPad apps had the potential to bring mathematics and reading to life for young students.

She said the initiative started with two schools that had requested iPads under the government's innovation grants scheme.

The minister said that Settlers Primary School in Perth had found that boys in particular improved their literacy and numeracy through using the iPads.

"Technology seems to be one way to excite little boys into learning in the early years," she said.

"Tablet computers are tactile and interactive, which allow students to learn and practise maths skills such as counting patterns, times tables, shape identification, counting money and telling time."

The minister said that for reading, the iPad had apps that made learning phonics, spelling and reading more engaging for students.

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