Students at St Benedict's College in Kirkop are the first in Europe to experience "the classroom of the future", in a pilot project that will be rolled out to 10 schools next year.

Virtual reality and other state-of-the-art interactive technology is being introduced to the state school by Microsoft as part of a pilot project that will eventually be rolled out for around 1,500 students in state, Church, and independent schools across the island.

Twelve and 13-year-old students on Friday used popular sandbox video game Minecraft to learn about the Mnajdra Temples by rebuilding them on the digital platform.

“It was great – we visited the temples, got the ratios and the measurements right and then we recreated them completely on Minecraft,” one young student said.

Across the hall in another class, a group of 11-year-olds wearing virtual reality headsets sat in their Kirkop classrooms while walking through Rome and Peru at the same time.

“It’s amazing. I’ve been across the world in this classroom,” another student said as she slipped off her headset.

Digital Economy and Innovation Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Schembri said the project was the fruit of an agreement signed between the government and Microsoft a few months ago.

The memorandum of understanding, he said, would see Microsoft play an active role in the country’s digital future.

A Microsoft spokesman said the overall project would see an investment of around €50,000 and will kick off in the next scholastic year.

Following the project in schools, the 21st century classroom will be permanently set up at the Microsoft Innovation Centre, where more schools and students will have the opportunity to experience the use of technology in today’s education processes.

To date, the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Malta has hosted around 900 workshops and training courses for over 12,000 students, teachers and professionals.