Modern School Bags Down Under Go Virtual

Aussie schoolgoers are increasingly leaning towards e-learning as traditional books in bagpacks are fast being replaced by a laptop, charger, mobile phone and digital player.

All this digital equipment is valued at over 2000 dollars.

However, experts point out that this tech revolution has not come cheap. According to estimates of the Australian Scholarships Group, parents will have to shell out 5232dollars to educate a child in a government high school this year, 11,068dollars in a systemic Catholic school and 21,549dollars in a private college.

Tuition fees and levies in a public school will amount to 1794dollars, computer and Internet will cost 1631dollars, clothing will come at 640dollars, books and bags for 580dollars and camps and excursions 587dollars.

The Scholarships Group cationed that the costs of education were increasing at a much higher rate than inflation, even though the Government's laptop rollout has eased some of the pressure.

Attila Lendvai, assistant principal of St Mark's Catholic College in Sydney, said all the school's secondary students carried a 13-inch laptop in their bag.

"It is empowering their learning and the way they investigate and present material," the Daily Telegraph quoted him, as saying.

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Some modern text books include a compact disc that allowed students to download entire ebooks on to their laptops.

Source-ANI