OPPOSITION councillors at Scottish Borders Council are demanding to know more details about the planned roll out of iPads for every Borders school pupil.

One of the flagship policies to come out of the 2019/20 budget is that iPads will be bought for every P6 to S6 pupil, which they will be able to take home and use with their family.  

Devices will also be given to P1 to P5 pupils at a ratio of one for every five children, although these will be kept at their school.

The project will cost £15.7m over a ten-year contract with American technology giant Apple and Canadian firm CGI.

Now, councillors from the SNP-led opposition group are set to quiz the administration on the details of the plan at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, March 28.

Councillor Heather Anderson, who represents Tweeddale West, will ask the council: how much will it cost to provide wifi access for all nine high schools; how much of the budget has been set aside for training teachers; what targets have been set for teachers; and finally, what will be the cost be of charging the iPads, and how will this be achieved?

Speaking ahead of the meeting, councillor Anderson said: “The opposition budget group had proposed that the roll out of iPads across the school estate be slowed down and developed in collaboration with teachers.  

“The expenditure line for this project was £16m in total and we as an opposition budget group were very concerned that we had not had sight of a detailed report on the proposal until the morning of Thursday 21 February when the report was released to the press.  

“Our group are keen to better understand the business case for the iPad programme as significant claims were made regarding the educational impact the investment will have.  

“We are also concerned at the proposed timescale for the roll out as no other local authority in Scotland has achieved this pace of implementation.  

“The purpose of our questions is to better understand exactly how the roll out will work and how teachers will be supported to make this significant change to their teaching practice.

“Hopefully the questions will be taken.”

Speaking at the budget announcement last month, Tweeddale East councillor Robin Tatler, the council’s executive member for finance, said: “We’re announcing today the launch of ‘inspire learning’.

“This is a major 10-year investment in digital learning in the Scottish Borders.

“It’s a key part of the council’s key learning strategy, and will transform teaching and learning in our schools for the benefit of young people now, and into the future.

“Apple iPads will be provided for every P6 to S6 pupil, and shared devices will be available for P1 To P5 pupils.

“Individual devices will be owned by the pupil, and therefore can be taken home, which means that family members can benefit from learning how to use digital technology, and from being able to access digital services including Scottish Borders Council’s growing digital offering.”

Council leader Shona Haslam, who also represents Tweeddale East, added: “It’s a really exciting, and huge investment on behalf of the council. We’re the first local authority in Scotland to be rolling out iPads on this scale to every single young person.

“We’re really excited about the impact it’s going to have in the poverty attainment gap, as well as for additional needs students.

“Quite often in classrooms additional needs students are the odd ones out because they’re sitting with their iPads. That will now no longer be the case.

“All the students will have an iPad, they will be able to bring them home and they’ll have that interactive learning opportunity.

“Being the first local authority to do it, and working very closely with [technology companies] Apple and CGI we’ve got a good deal.”