Jason Clare calls for ‘digital detox’ in Australian schools after worst ever reading and maths results

Education Minister Jason Clare is calling for a “digital detox” in Australian schools, warning that too much time spent on laptops and tablets could be dragging down students’ results.

The push comes after a major global assessment revealed Australian teenagers recorded their worst-ever reading and maths results, with 15-year-olds now performing at levels about two years behind students who sat the test two decades ago.

While Australia continues to perform above the international average, Mr Clare said the decline was being experienced across dozens of countries and pointed to growing evidence linking excessive screen use in classrooms with poorer academic performance.

“The more kids are on screens at school, the more likely they are to fall behind,” Mr Clare told Sunrise on Thursday.

“The more time they spend in front of a laptop or a tablet, the lower their results are.”

Mr Clare said he would put the issue on the agenda when Australia’s education ministers meet in coming weeks, declaring “the evidence is in”.

“We need a digital detox in our schools,” he said.

The proposal would go beyond mobile phone bans already introduced across Australian schools and instead target how frequently laptops and tablets are used during lessons.

“If you look in the average classroom today, you’ll see tablets and laptops on every desk,” Mr Clare said.

“They’re not always used to learn. They’re sometimes used just for entertainment as well or as a distraction in the classroom.”

He pointed to Victoria’s move to limit screen time in primary schools to 90 minutes a day and high schools to two hours, while also highlighting overseas moves to reconsider technology’s place in classrooms.

Mr Clare argued traditional methods could have benefits, saying students were more likely to retain information written with a pen than information typed on a device.

The Education Minister also acknowledged discipline and an overloaded curriculum were contributing to problems in Australian classrooms.

“If kids are mucking up, then no one learns in the classroom,” he said.

Mr Clare said work was already underway to overhaul the curriculum, beginning with how maths is taught during the first three years of school.

“In a couple of weeks we’ll get advice on the changes we need to make to the maths curriculum for those little kids, just to make sure that we teach it in the right order so they don’t fall behind and never catch up,” he said.