Year 4 teachers will get their tablet next June in preparation for the national rolloout of the 'One tablet per child programme' in October next year.

This would help them familiarise with the device in time for its distributed to Year 4 students, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said this morning.

The minister was visiting a pilot project at the Zabbar Primary A school. He said that the tendering process to supply the devices would be finalised in the coming weeks.

The event served to showcase a number of tablet applications in Maltese being developed by the Eucation Department. Mr Bartolo said that the use of tablets was not an end in itself but a means to improve teaching.

E-learning director Emanuel Zammit spoke about the findings of a pilot project launched last year in which 300 students from 22 schools took part. Teachers were initially apprehensive that the device might cause disruptions in class but found it eventually blended well and offered new opportunities for teaching especially to children with learning difficulties.

He noted that few breakages were reported and these had to do with broken screens and damages to connection ports. Mr Zammit said that more often than not damages were caused while the devices were being carried to and from school.