Sweden: Education Minister Is Making Preschools Screen-Free Again

Good news from Sweden! The Education Minister, Lotta Edholm, is making preschools screen-free again. The Swedish government reversed its decision to make digital devices compulsory in preschools. The new position is essentially based on the statement by the Karolinska Institute.

Communication from Diagnosefunk (in German) containing link to statement by the Karolinska Institute: https://www.diagnose-funk.org/aktuelles/artikel-archiv/detail

Karolinska Institute (Sweden): Statement on the national digitization strategy in education - 
Swedish education minister listens to science. diagnose:funk translates the report

diagnose-funk.org, 8 July 2023 - auto-translation

Minister Lotta Edholm, Photo: Swedish Government 

Sweden, France, Finland and the Netherlands, countries that were at the forefront of digitizing education, are now pulling the ripcord. Governments are making pre-schools screen-free. In Sweden, a report by the Karolinska Institute (= university) was decisive. We document this development.

The Swedish government reversed its decision to make digital devices compulsory in preschools. The new position is essentially based on the statement by the Karolinska University, formulated by Lisa Thorell , Professor of Developmental Psychology; Torkel Klingberg , Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Agneta Herlitz , professor of psychology; Andreas Olsson , Professor of Psychology and Ulrika Ådén , Professor and Advisor for Neonatology. Education Minister Lotta Edholm justified the about-face:

“It is obvious that screens have major disadvantages for young children. They hinder learning and language development. Too much screen time can lead to trouble concentrating and crowd out physical activity. We know that human interaction is crucial for learning in the early years of life. Screens simply have no place in preschools." ( Source: Liberal website )

The summary of the Karolinska Institute's statement reads:

“The proposal for a digitization strategy put forward by the National Agency for Education includes two overarching objectives: 1) all children and students should develop digital competences to be able to actively participate in education, social life and working life in order to contribute to a sustainable and democratic society, and 2) the quality of education, equivalence and the achievement of objectives should be improved by exploiting the opportunities that digitization offers in the different areas of the school system. In its report, the National Agency for Education describes how increasing digitization will lead to various positive effects for both schools and society. We see three problems in the report:

1. The assumption that digitization will have the positive effects expected by the Swedish Education Authority is not evidence-based, ie not based on scientific knowledge. We call for quantitative studies that measure the impact of different measures on knowledge acquisition and digital literacy.

2. The National Agency for Education seems completely unaware that research has shown that the digitization of schools has a large, negative impact on students' knowledge acquisition.

3. The Swedish Education Authority's proposal does not contain any concrete suggestions on how schools should go about implementing the digital strategy, although the authority must be well aware that many schools (especially in disadvantaged areas) have great difficulties in finding qualified teachers and that very few teachers have been trained in using digital tools.”

Some other key points from the statement: 

" As we explain in more detail below, research shows that the digitization of schools to the extent that it has already taken place in Sweden has many disadvantages, and that more digitization could have other negative consequences."

"There is clear scientific evidence that digital tools impair rather than enhance student learning."

"Major school policy decisions should not be made without first knowing what the research says."

"So the knowledge about the negative impact of digitization has been around for many years, but the Swedish education authority doesn't seem to be aware of it."

"We refer to a recently published summary by the Swedish Media Council (Nutley & Thorell, 2022) describing a positive association between screen time and various aspects of mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety, concentration problems, low self-esteem, eating disorders, sleep problems) and physical health (e.g. obesity, myopia, poorer motor skills)."

"If digital tools are already being used with very young preschool children, it will be impossible for parents to follow the recommendations that children should not use screens before the age of two."

"In summary, we believe that the increasing digitization of schools is already having a significant negative impact, as it teaches that knowledge is relative - such an approach poses a serious threat to students' knowledge acquisition."

"We believe that the focus should be re-focused on acquiring knowledge through printed textbooks and teacher expertise, rather than acquiring knowledge primarily from open digital sources that have not been verified for accuracy."

diagnose:funk has translated the statement of the Karolinska Institute. Help spread this excellent publication. Send the statement to teachers, principals, educators, parent councils and politicians.

>>> Download the statement of the Karolinska Institute

This statement is not an individual opinion of a faculty, but was passed on to politicians by the entire university. Karolinska University is one of the most important universities in the Nordic countries.

Sweden, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland - and when will Germany follow?

Continue reading: Original article in German:
https://www.diagnose-funk.org/aktuelles/artikel-archiv/detail