Faced with falling test results, the Scandinavian country moved away from screens and invested in returning to the essentials in terms of school materials. Books are back, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper.
In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country’s schools would return to their basics — and re-emphasize skills such as reading and writingparticularly in the first years of schooling.
After having been practically set aside, the books in physical format are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students learn to write the old fashioned way: by hand, with pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free across the country.
Education authorities have heavily invested. Only last year, the Ministry of Education allocated 70 million euros the acquisition of school manuals and guides for teachers.
In a country with 11 million inhabitantsthe objective is for each student to have a school manual in physical format for each discipline. The government also channeled 46 million euros to purchase fiction and non-fiction books intended for students.
These measures represent a drastic turn compared to previous decades, during which Sweden, like many other countries, moved away from physical books in favor of tablets and digital resourcesin an effort to prepare students for life in a digital world.
As expected, this Nordic country’s efforts have sparked a debate about the role of digital technology in educationa debate that goes far beyond the country’s borders.
But why did Sweden change course?
In an email sent to the magazine, Linda Fältha researcher in teacher education at Linnaeus University, wrote that the “decision to invest again in physical textbooks and reduce the emphasis on digital devices” was motivated by several factorsincluding questions about whether the digitalization of classrooms had a scientific basis.
“There was also a broader cultural reassessment“, wrote Fälth. “Sweden had positioned itself as a pioneer in digital education, but over time concerns about screen time, distractionthe decrease in in-depth reading and the erosion of fundamental skills such as sustained attention and handwriting.”
Fälth notes that reform advocates believe that “basic skills, in particular reading, writing and calculationmust first be solidly consolidated, and that school manuals in physical format are often more suitable for this purpose”.
Between 2000 and 2012Swedish students’ results on standardized tests registered a steady decline in reading, math and science. Although they recovered ground between 2012 and 2018, these rankings fell again in 2022.
Although it is unclear to what extent the decline is due to digitalization, there is some evidence that analog teaching materials for reading may be superior to on-screen learning.
However, this applies to expository texts and not to narrative texts. Narrative texts tell a story, whether fiction or nonfiction, while expository texts are intended to inform, describe, or explain a topic in a logical and factual way.
Swedish authorities stress that technology is not being completely removed from schools: achieving digital competence continues to be an important objective, especially in the later years of schooling. But digital media “should only be introduced in teaching at an age where they encourageand do not harm, student learning”.
Historically, the technology industry has been pushing for greater use of digital learning, seeing itself as transforming education.
In the 1980s, Apple contributed to the introduction of computers in schools. Then, with the internet, and later with the integration of mobile devices, technology reconfigured the educational landscape. Education experts argue that technology can provide a learning experience more interactive, accessible and adapted to the needs of each student.
More recently, tech giants like Google, Microsoft and OpenAI are urging schools to teach artificial intelligence literacy. Some education professionals believe that schools should prepare students to employers expecting digital fluency.
This issue may, in fact, be relevant in the era of artificial intelligence. In the US, more than 50% of teenagers have used AI chatbots for school work, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.
In a study conducted in 2023, 30% of educators stated that their students pass at least half the reading time in the classroom to do it in digital format.
But this may have disadvantages. Researchers suggest that reading on digital screens, rather than on paper, can be more mentally demandingespecially for younger students. Studies have associated the intensive use of digital media with a reduction in comprehension and memory retention, as well as eye fatigue.
The limitations of educational technology became evident during the pandemic of Covid-19. When online learning became the norm, experts began to question whether technology promises had actually come to fruition.
Five years later, some experts do not hesitate to answer this question.
On LinkedIn, Pam Kastnera literacy consultant and adjunct professor at Mount Saint Joseph University, suggests that technology “is a tool, not a teacher“.From his perspective, the cognitive architecture for reading was designed for print.
Jonathan Haidta well-known critic of the use of smartphones and social networks by children, in February at X that “putting computers and tablets on children’s tables primary and secondary school students may turn out to be one of the most expensive mistakes in the history of education“And apparently, Sweden has already started paying to correct this possible historical error.
