TEXTBOOKS have all but disappeared from the modern school bag now packed with computers and digital devices for students navigating a new age of electronic learning.

The state's secondary students are carrying on their backs an array of whizzbang electronic equipment that includes a laptop, charger, mobile phone and digital player valued at more than $2000.

It is a world away from the cumbersome cases full of books that students lugged around three decades ago.

But technology revolution in schools has not come cheap. The Australian Scholarships Group estimates it will cost parents $5232 to educate a child in a government high school this year, $11,068 in a systemic Catholic school and $21,549 in a private college.

In a public school, tuition fees and levies make up $1794 of the cost, computer and internet $1631, clothing $640, requisites such as books and bags $580 and incidentals such as camps and excursions $587.

The Scholarships Group said education costs were increasing at a much higher rate than inflation, although the Government's laptop rollout has eased some of the pressure.

When School Certificate students at St Mark's Catholic College in Sydney's northwest opened the contents of their bags to The Daily Telegraph, we found just one printed book book - Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird. All the other books needed for study by Kiritika Chettiar, 14, and Emily Medic, 14, were either downloaded to their laptops or accessible online.

St Mark's assistant principal Attila Lendvai said all the of school's secondary students now carried a 13-inch laptop in their bag.

"It is empowering their learning and the way they investigate and present material," Mr Lendvai said.

Some modern text books include a compact disc enabling students to download entire books on to their laptop.

Emily and Kiritika said students often had a choice between submitting their work in electronic and hard copy. Increasingly their work was done online.