Wanganui secondary schools are holding back from making high-priced technology items such as iPads compulsory on students' stationery lists.
Last year an Auckland school sparked an uproar by placing the new iPad, retailing at $799, on its "compulsory" stationery list for 2012 Year 9 students.
Orewa College sent a letter to parents of Year 8 students saying they needed their "help and financial input" to provide "affordable portable computing devices such as netbooks and laptops, iPads and the smaller devices such as iTouch and smart phones" for students.
The iPad was the school's recommended option.
However, the college recommended that iPad2s were the best option for students, mainly for ease of use and longer-lasting batteries and they were happy to offer finance for those parents baulking at forking out a minimum of $800 for the basic iPad.
Wanganui High School principal Nigel Hanton said the school was reviewing students using their own technology, as it looked to become wireless.
Wanganui Girls' College principal Vivianne Murphy said IT technology was not part of her school's mandatory stationery list.
"We're not asking for iPads or other technology to be provided by families, we only expect the usual stationery and such things as calculators."
Wanganui Collegiate School spokeswoman Kristine Dickson said while it was not mandatory for students from Year 9 to Year 13 to have laptops, most of them did.
With a wireless campus, they had access to the web.
However at the preparatory St George's School, which now operates out of the Wanganui Collegiate campus, the school had given each of the 67 Year 7 and 8 students an iPad2 each at a cost of more than $54,000 in total.
Last year, St Marcellin School in Tawhero went digital, to the delight of its Year 7 and 8 students.
A total of $20,000 was spent on 15 iPads, 10 of which were already in the two classrooms.