Stockholm, Sweden

As young children in Sweden went back to school last month, they were met with teachers pushing them to use printed books and engage in quiet reading time as well as handwriting practice, while asking them to devote less time to their tablets, independent online research and keyboarding skills, according to a report by the Associated Press. What changed?

Advertisment

What prompted this switch?

According to the Swedish minister for schools, Lotta Edholm, the move has been long overdue, since lawmakers and experts in the country have questioned if their hyper-digitalised approach to education has proven detrimental to children and led to a decline in basic skills.

Edholm, a part of the centre-right coalition government, who took office nearly a year ago has long been critical of this all-out embrace of technology. He announced last month that the government has sought to reverse the national agency for education’s decision to make digital devices mandatory in preschools. 

Advertisment

“Sweden’s students need more textbooks,” said the Swedish minister back in March. However, he has planned to take one step forward and end digital learning for children under age six, the ministry has told the AP. 

The rapid adoption of digital learning tools also drew concerns from UNESCO which called for an “urgent call for appropriate use of technology in education”. The United Nations agency said that countries should speed up internet connections at schools but warned them to use it in a way that never replaces in-person and teacher-led instruction.

PIRLS report

Advertisment

A report by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) also highlighted that while Swedish students score above the European average for reading ability, it was the international assessment of fourth-grade reading levels that showed a decline among the country’s children between 2016 and 2021.

While multiple factors have affected this decline including the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing number of immigrant students who don’t speak Swedish as their first language, experts noted, the overuse of screens during school might have caused students to fall behind in core subjects. 

“There’s clear scientific evidence that digital tools impair rather than enhance student learning,” Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said in a statement, last month addressing the country’s national digitalisation strategy in education.

It added, “We believe the focus should return to acquiring knowledge through printed textbooks and teacher expertise, rather than acquiring knowledge primarily from freely available digital sources that have not been vetted for accuracy.”

Catarina Branelius, a teacher at Stockholm’s Djurgardsskolan elementary school said that even before the issue went national she would only allow students to use technology for certain parts of the lessons. “I use tablets in math and we are doing some apps, but I don’t use tablets for writing text,” Branelius told AP. 

Students under age 10 “need time and practice and exercise in handwriting…before you introduce them to write on a tablet,” said the teacher. 

Is it just about helping children?

Liveon Palmer, a third grader and one of Branelius’ students told the news agency, “I like writing more in school, like on paper, because it just feels better, you know.” 

While the issue remains hotly debated, not everyone is convinced that the shift is being made exclusively for the students as criticising the effects of technology is “a popular move with conservative politicians,” said Neil Selwyn, a professor of education at Monash University. 

He added, “The Swedish government does have a valid point when saying that there is no evidence for technology improving learning, but I think that’s because there is no straightforward evidence of what works with technology.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.