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In an overhaul of the country’s education system which signals a pivot from play-based teaching for younger children, it will soon be compulsory that they start attending lessons at just six-years-old. The centre-right coalition government has also announced plans to ban access to digital devices in classrooms.
On the one hand, recent efforts to safeguard children’s wellbeing in Sweden are commendable.
In 2023, the country’s public health agency suggested that toddlers should not be exposed to any screens whatsoever – including television – that two to five-year-olds should have a maximum of an hour a day in front of them; that six to twelve-year-olds should have two; and teenagers no more than three.
The recommendations came after research found that high use of digital devices was producing a variety of negative effects such as poor sleep, depression, and limited physical activity among the country’s youth.
Going a step further, the Swedish government is now looking to take things back to basics in schools. Amid a global push to ban screens in classrooms, it announced last month that it would be putting the brakes on the progressive digitalisation of education and returning to more traditional ways of learning.
This will see printed books, reading, and handwriting practice prioritised over tablets, independent online research, and keyboarding skills.
‘Schools have a responsibility to prepare children for the world, but my God, what we’re seeing now is something else,’ Social Affairs and Public Health Minister, Jakob Forssmed, tells DW.
He says that Swedish students are suffering widespread disorders and a decline in intellectual capabilities due to the time they spend scrolling.
‘They cannot cut with scissors. They cannot climb a tree. They cannot walk backward because they are sitting with their cell phones,’ he continues.
It’s for this reason that he believes restrictions should be enshrined in national law and made mandatory rather than simply advised.
