The Catalan Minister for Education said that not all the 40,000 students that were meant to start the laptop programme at the next academic course will be able to do so. Although the main reason is due to the economic cutbacks, the Minister said that the are also pending teaching evaluations regarding the use of laptops.
The new Catalan Minister for Education was the CiU’s manager of this portfolio for seven years, while the party was not in power. She has experience, both as a primary school and university teacher. Over the last 30 years, she has held several positions in politics, mainly working on education issues, with the exception of the period in which she was the Catalan Minister for Social Welfare and Family (1999-2003).
Secondary school pupils in Catalonia are doing better in reading, math and science. Catalonia ranks 15th in reading skills, at the same level as Sweden and the United States
Catalan students are back to the books, or in some cases, laptops. The 2010-2011 school year began this morning with over 1,200,000 students and 88,467 teachers back in the classroom.
The future is here. Digitalisation in school classrooms is now a reality. This summer, a large step has been taken in order to provide Catalan high-school students with laptops and digital books. Catalan Minister for Education Ernest Maragall says it is “an extraordinary step in changing our educational system”.