The advancement of digital technologies appears to be hindering children from reaching their full potential. It is a fact that in the UK, digital clocks are displayed in exam halls because pupils and students struggle to read the time on analogue clocks.

Meanwhile in Sweden... I'm inclined to agree with what Sweden is planning to do.

Sweden might have some of the best educational performance and attainment metrics in Europe, but the Swedish Government is unhappy with recent attainment levels. It plans to move away from digital screens and invest more in bringing textbooks back into classrooms.

The Swedish Government has announced plans to release 685 million kroner ($68m USD) this year and another 500 million kroner ($50m USD) in both 2024 and again in 2025 to speed up the return of printed textbooks to the nation’s schools.

The debate in Sweden is raging around the use of digital screens, with many politicians, parents and teachers fearing that the nation’s schools have gone too far and too fast in embracing digital technologies in classrooms.

Swedish literacy remains higher than the European average. However, recent international literacy surveys have shown a decline in young Swedes’ reading and comprehension skills. The Swedish schools minister blamed the lackluster performance on the overprovisioning of digital screens, tablets and computers in the country’s classrooms.

Schools Minister Lotta Edholm has previously raised concerns. In December 2022, she published a column in the Expressen newspaper condemning the shelving of the textbook. She condemned “the uncritical attitude that considered casually that digitalization is good whatever its context” and argued that the textbook has “benefits that no tablet can replace”.

Read on if you are interested: [navigator-paper.com].