iPad-centric schools open in Netherlands

Seven iPad-centric "Steve Jobs schools" opened their doors across the Netherlands earlier this week.

The elementary schools, where iPads play an important role in education and where each student gets his or her own iPad, will educate students as per the principles of the O4NT foundation. O4NT is the Dutch acronym "education for a new era", which emphasises the role of the iPad in an elementary school environment, Xinhua reported citing local media.

The foundation plans to open five more such schools before the end of this year and expects a large number of schools functioning according to their teaching methods by the next year.

Working with a one iPad-per student approach, O4NT gives every child access to a virtual school and aims to help them develop information processing skills, collaboration techniques and a problem-solving and creative mind.

"A total of 1,000 children attend the seven schools," Maurice de Hond, the man behind the schools, told Xinhua.

"The world is digitalising in a faster pace than ever before, but still everything within the school environment is analogue instead of digital. The system is outdated," he said.