Those calculators are great, though.
At school, a simple one was enough back then.
But at university, I needed a programmable one.
And unless you insist on installing some games on them, there are also far fewer distractions than with a laptop or a tablet.
So, while it costs 100, it's really priceless in overall benefits.
Though, technically, in the exams I had it was mostly irrelevant if you had a result at the end.
You got most points for understanding the the questions, formulating a solution-approach and showing how you'd solve it. That was usually 85-90% of the points.
I actually once forgot mine and approximated most results in my head/on paper. Was still enough for a good exam.
As for the article - I do agree that learning something from a physical text-book is much, much better. You learn best by engaging as many senses as possible. Being able to physically grab pages of a book is invaluable.
At least, they use Apple hardware. It could be Chrome books, ensuring the kids get conditioned from early age to watch ads and buy the products. That would be much worse.