The New Brunswick government is spending $8 million on laptop computers for public school students, hoping the investment will pay off with improved academic performance.

The program will provide 3,000 Grade 7, 8 and 9 students in 27 schools with laptop computers.

"New Brunswick will be a true leader in using technology in education in a way that's not seen anywhere else in North America, at least not in public schools," said Education Minister Claude Williams.

New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord announced the program at Harold Peterson Middle School in Oromocto on Thursday.

Student Kayle Adail says she looks forward to working on her laptop next September. "I'll have a lot more information. And I'll think it'll be easier for the teachers too. It's less notes on them."

The program is an expansion of a $2 million, 2004 pilot project that provided 500 Grade 7 students with laptop computers.

Researchers at Mount Allison University in Sackville surveyed students in the pilot project and reported they were more enthusiastic about their studies and were more likely to attend class. That two-year study is not complete, but an interim report was enough to convince the government to expand the program to thousands more students, and to offer laptops to all of New Brunswick's 7,500 teachers.

So far, approximately 90 per cent of the teachers have accepted laptops, costing provincial taxpayers $9.4 million. That brings the computer program's total price since 2004 to approximately $20 million.

Lord admits the capital expense may seem like a lot, but says it's a major investment in the province's future. "The next four years, you'll just see it in schools. But it's 10 years after that that you'll see the impact of this initiative throughout the New Brunswick economy and New Brunswick society."

CUPE rep Sandy Harding speaks for 2,700 educational support workers in New Brunswick and says hiring more teacher's assistants and clerical staff would have been a better investment. "I would have thought that resources spent would've been better spent on human resources."

Lord eventually wants every student from Grades 7 to 12 to have laptops at their disposal.

Lord says there will be restrictions on the students' computers and they won't be able to take them home. He predicts they'll be responsible with the machines. During the two-year pilot project, Lord says only two computers were damaged.