Screen- free schools?

Screens in Schools: time for a re-think

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, schools across the world had to pivot overnight. As a teacher during this time, I remember the sudden shift vividly: we were handed laptops and expected to deliver lessons through Microsoft Teams with barely a moment to plan or adapt. Physical teaching aids disappeared. Lessons became PDFs and worksheets shared via email or online portals. It wasn’t a thoughtful transition — it was a scramble to keep education going.

And at the time, it was necessary. Schools weren’t trying to reshape the future of education — they were reacting to a global emergency. But in the process, something fundamental changed. When we returned to classrooms, the screens came with us. Interactive whiteboards replaced standard ones. Laptops stayed open. PowerPoint took centre stage.

The problem is, we never stopped to ask: is this the best way to teach and learn?

A Hybrid Mess

What followed was not a sleek, modern upgrade to education, but an administrative and pedagogical tangle. Teachers were juggling lesson slides, Teams calendars, digital hand-ins, physical planners, and traditional exercise books — often within a single lesson. It became chaotic, inconsistent, and overwhelming, both for staff and for students.

And all the while, another issue crept in: the increasing dominance of smartphones, social media, and now AI, in young people's lives. As screens multiplied in schools, children were expected to focus while pinged notifications buzzed in their pockets. The boundary between real-life learning and online distraction blurred — often with damaging effects.

So What’s School For Now?

This is the question I think we’ve failed to ask seriously in the post-pandemic rush. Should schools embrace the digital world fully — or should they be a refuge from it?

There is immense value in being screen-free. In allowing students to think without Google answering for them. To research in a library, not just by scanning a Wikipedia summary. To ask questions that don’t have immediate answers, and to explore those questions through discussion, trial and error, and creativity.

And what about teachers? By the time I left my full-time teaching career, I felt that much of the job had become about admin and performance — crafting neat PowerPoint presentations rather than inspiring, in-the-moment teaching. Teachers were chained to laptops both in and out of class, and lessons increasingly resembled office meetings.

It didn’t feel like progress. It felt like a misjudgement.

Screens Are Here To Stay — but they don’t belong everywhere

Of course, we can’t pretend the digital world doesn’t exist. Children need digital literacy — they need to know how to write an email, organise files, manage their time and finances. But this doesn’t require daily screen use from the age of five. I would argue digital skills could be taught meaningfully from Year 9 onward, through specific, targeted curriculum content — not by integrating screens into every lesson.

Right now, we’re trapped in a messy hybrid system — with paper and screens clashing rather than complementing each other. Swedish schools are starting to experiment with going completely screen-free in the classroom, returning to pen, paper, and books. I support this move wholeheartedly.

We need to free teachers from excessive admin and tech setups. Scrap the PowerPoints. Replace interactive whiteboards with normal ones. Create space for spontaneous, responsive, creative teaching again — the kind that doesn’t come from a slide deck but from passion, knowledge and presence.

Rethinking the Role of Education

Education should be about so much more than delivering neat packages of information. It should be about curiosity, resilience, questioning, play, creativity, outdoor learning, movement, and collaboration. It should be a calm place that nurtures both body and mind — not one that mirrors the distraction and overload of the digital world.

Let’s reimagine schools not as places that prepare students to fit neatly into a screen-based economy — but as places that equip them with the deeper skills to thrive within and beyond it: focus, empathy, creativity, and independent thought.

Final Thoughts

Recently, I saw actor Hugh Grant post on Instagram, venting his frustration at the overuse of screens in schools — and the response from parents and teachers was overwhelmingly supportive. Clearly, there is a growing sense that something isn’t right.

The digital world will always be there. But school doesn't have to look like it.

Let’s give students — and teachers — a break from screens. Let’s restore the joy, the creativity, and the human connection in education.

Let’s think again.