The government has already slowed down the use of digital aids, such as reading tablets, in preschool.
Now Labor Market and Integration Minister Johan Pehrson wants to continue to go from screen to cover even in primary school – in line with proven research, Pehrson believes.
Screen bans should be introduced in primary school. That’s what Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson says to TV4 Nyheterna. The ban on computers and reading tablets in preschool is not enough to reverse the trend where Sweden’s students are losing literacy, according to Pehrson.
– We know that young children, and that is when you go to primary school, learn best from reading real books and writing by hand. Therefore, we think that, in all essentials, even primary school should be made screen-free.
Alarm that literacy is falling
Behind the liberals’ demands for austerity are the alarms that literacy in Sweden is falling.
Every fifth student in grade four cannot read or write. In upper secondary school, every fourth student cannot read or count properly.
– It is clear that you can use both video games and watch films on a screen at home. But there is nothing that needs to be a tool in school, where you have to focus on the basics: learn to read, learn to write – and the last thing you do with paper and pencil, says Johan Pehrson.