Apr 02, 2025 06:00:00

Due to a decline in children's reading comprehension, Sweden is planning to return digitalization in the education sector to paper books and handwritten learning

Learning using digital books and tablets has become popular worldwide, and Sweden, a Nordic country, is one of the countries where digitalization is progressing in the field of education, including the introduction of tablets in kindergartens. However, it has been pointed out that this digitalization may be causing a decline in children's reading comprehension, and plans are underway to return to printed paper books and handwritten learning.

Sweden brings more books and handwriting practice back to its tech-heavy schools | AP News

https://apnews.com/article/sweden-digital-education-backlash-reading-writing-1dd964c628f76361c43dbf3964f7dbf4

Although Swedish students' reading achievement is above the European average, an international assessment of fourth-graders' reading achievement, the Proficiency in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), revealed a decline in average scores between 2016 and 2021.

In the 2016 PIRLS, the average score of fourth graders in Sweden was 555 points, but in 2021 the average score dropped by 11 points to 544 points. However, Sweden's average PIRLS score is still the seventh highest in the world as of 2021. Singapore topped the 2021 PIRLS, with an average score of 587 points in 2021, up from 576 points in 2016.

Reasons for the decline in Sweden's PIRLS average score from 2016 to 2021 include the 'COVID-19 pandemic' and the 'increase in immigrant students whose native language is not Swedish.' However, some have pointed out that 'digitalization in the education sector' may be the main cause of the decline in reading comprehension.

In August 2023, Sweden's Minister of Education Lotta Edholm announced a statement to revoke the National Agency for Education's decision to make digital devices mandatory in kindergartens, saying, 'Swedish students need more textbooks. Physical books are important for students' learning,' and

said the country's digital push was having a negative impact on students. She also told the Associated Press that the National Agency for Education 'plans to completely abolish digital learning for children under the age of six.'

Sweden's Karolinska Institute also said: 'There is clear scientific evidence that digital tools hinder rather than enhance student learning.' 'We believe it is time to return to acquiring knowledge through printed textbooks and teacher expertise, rather than from freely available digital sources whose accuracy has not been verified .'

UNESCO also published a report called 'An Urgent Call for the Appropriate Use of Technology in Education,' which warned that 'technology in education should not replace teacher-led, face-to-face instruction but should be deployed in a way that supports the shared goal of quality education for all.'

Levon Palmer, a 9-year-old boy who attends an elementary school in Stockholm, Sweden, said, 'I prefer to write on paper at school because it makes me feel better.' Palmer's teacher, Katharina Branelius, said, 'I use a tablet in math classes and some apps, but I don't use the tablet for writing,' and 'Students under 10 need time to write by hand before teaching them to write on a tablet,' revealing that they use both digital and analog.

The Swedish government has announced that it will set aside 685 million kronor (US$100 million) to buy books for primary schools in an effort to prevent a decline in reading skills among fourth-graders.

However, the move away from digital education and back to paper books and handwriting may not be what's best for students. Professor Neil Selwyn of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, points out that criticizing the impact of technology is 'a popular tactic among conservative politicians. The Swedish government is right to say there's no evidence that technology improves learning, because there's no clear evidence of what technology does.'