iPad program a waste: Papalia

Shadow education minister Paul Papalia has labelled the State Government’s iPad rollout a waste of money, saying the focus should be on retaining quality regional teachers and helping “at risk” students.

It was announced last week that Cassia, Baler and South Hedland Primary schools would each receive 50 iPads for classroom use, plus additional iPads for teachers, for Year 1 and 2 students.

The State Government’s $1 million Early Childhood iPad Initiative will result in nearly 900 iPads being provided to school children across the State.

But Mr Papalia was scathing of the program, saying Education Minister Liz Constable had her priorities “completely mixed up”.

“In the Pilbara teachers are very concerned about their locality allowance being substandard or far lower than other public servants,” he said.

“iPads for a small number of five year olds isn’t really a priority when you need to attract and retain good teachers in the regions.

(Pilbara teachers) have a locality allowance at the moment which is around $3438 a year whilst other public servants get $15,922. The Minister should be addressing that.”

Dr Constable said Mr Papalia was “totally confused” and that the iPad roll-out was funded by the Federal Government with a requirement the money be spent on literacy and numeracy enhancement.

“Mr Papalia is again wrong when he says there are better ways to use Federal money,” she said.

“The iPad program is linked to the State’s reward funding received for significantly improved NAPLAN testing.”

Mr Papalia said Government funding cuts to the Department of Education’s attendance programs had resulted in a rise of students “lost to the system”.

He said more money was needed to help “at risk” students.