Sweden invests in books to reduce screen use

Sweden is beginning to question the preponderance of screens and digital technologies in its schools, something that the government itself had promoted. For the Minister of Education, lotta edholmThe gradual replacement of books by screens that has been taking place for the last 15 years sees digitization as an intrinsically positive quality, without fully considering the importance of the content that is taught and learned.

For this reason, the center-right government announced an investment of 60 million euros this year, and 45 million in 2024 and 2025, in didactic material that strengthens language development, reading and writing. One of the objectives is that each student works with one book per subject. For Edholm, those manuals retain advantages that no tablet will yet replace.

Its purpose is not to abandon the digitization plan approved last year, but rather that different experts study it so that – based on their conclusions – the necessary changes are applied. The official herself acknowledges that “digitization can be fantastic for students, but you have to use it sensibly.”

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The news updated the underlying debate. The positions against preponderance of these technologies they focus on the passivity and dependence of the immature mind of children on screens, and prioritize the learning mechanisms that occur when making mistakes, correcting and reading on paper.

Those who are in favor remember the importance of the motivational component that they imply, in addition to remembering their usefulness as complementary resources, whether through information from official pages, songs, films or documentaries.

PhD in Educational Sciences, Hector Gardopreferred to raise a question that challenges us beyond school: “We should ask ourselves what we are doing to promote reading among children and youth, especially in vulnerable environments, where the family does not perform this support function, where otherwise at school you don’t mess anywhere”.

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By Robert Collins

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