Media reports say the Shenzhen Nanshan Experimental Primary School in the South China city requires all its students to have an iPad.

After reading such reports, I would have seriously considered pulling my son or daughter out of that miserable place had he or she been studying there.

If what vice-principal Zhang Zhuzhi reportedly said about iPads is true, then he is an astute businessman but a failed educator.

Zhang has mistaken gadgetry for knowledge, electronics for wisdom, and a business tool for learning.

What has happened to textbooks, workbooks and the library? Are they not meant to improve children's reading and writing skills? If this is the brand of educators to whom parents entrust their children, then I can only lament about the future that lies in store for them.

I speak as a teacher of English in China. All my students carry e-dictionaries to class.

But the sad fact is that this tool has not significantly improved the communication skills of a vast majority of them.

Making it mandatory for primary school students to carry iPads to school is not good for their development of education.

Thomas David Chavez, via e-mail

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(China Daily 11/11/2010 page9)