Labour: Govt needs to foot kids' technology bill

  • 19/01/2016
Labour: Govt needs to foot kids' technology bill

The Government is being urged to review the way schools are charging parents for student technology.

A number of education providers are requiring children to purchase tablets or other learning devices as part of their school stationary list, but Labour's education spokesperson, Chris Hipkins, says parents shouldn't have to foot the bill for such expensive items.

"There's no doubt that kids need to be using technology, but simply transferring the cost of that onto parents isn't really living up to our obligation to provide kids with a free education," he says.

"We need to look at the cost of technology that schools face because clearly Government funding isn't keeping up with that. There's no doubt that kids benefit from owning their own devices, so we need to make sure we've got systems in place for parents that can't afford that capital outlay."

The pressure to constantly keep up to date with technology puts a huge amount of pressure on families, he says.

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