Less screen time for primary school students as WA joins digital detox

The amount of time primary school students spend staring at a screen will be restricted next year in a trial aimed at limiting "unnecessary" screen time in the classroom.

Slated for rollout in Term 1, 2027, the "Back to Basics" program will be piloted in 10 public schools across Western Australia, which will each receive $50,000 in funding for the purchase of materials.

The aim is to restore face-to face teaching and hands on learning instead of using a digital device like a laptop or iPad.

The announcement comes just one month after Australia reported its worst numeracy and reading results on record.

WA joins digital detox

WA isn't the first state to explore implementing top-down regulations on digital devices in schools.

Last month, New South Wales introduced a strict 15-minute limit on screens per day for students in Kindergarten to Year 2 and in June, the Victorian government announced a blanket requirement for planned screen-free time in public secondary schools.

State education minister Sabine Winton said she wanted WA to have its own unique policy.

"It's timely that we actually pause for a little while and fully contemplate the impacts and opportunities that screens play in our schools."

WA Premier Roger Cook said how technology was incorporated into day-to-day learning needed to be "carefully considered."

"A classroom should be a place where kids are talking to each other, challenging each other, asking questions," he said.

"Just because technology is everywhere, it doesn't mean that there should be the default mechanism in our classrooms."

Back to basics approach celebrated

The six-month program will target the state's youngest students, with screen time limits being trialled in classes from Kindergarten to Year 2.

Under trial restrictions, students will still have access to digital devices to learn skills needed to meet technology curriculum standards, and to participate in NAPLAN testing, which is now routinely conducted online.

The Kids Research Institute's Professor Hayley Christian said younger students felt the biggest impacts from too much screen time.

"The early years are so critical for setting them up for later life, it's where all that development happens, where their healthy behaviours are established," she said.

"[Screen time] replaces things like active play which is so important for a child's physical development, social emotional development and of course their learning and cognitive development."

Schools keen to cut screens

Craigie Heights Primary School principal Leon Wilson said his school would be applying to participate.

"The prevalence of screens in the home and the hours that developing brains are accessing screens hasn't supported literacy and numeracy development," he said.

"And being able to have the right things in schools to support [students] without having the screens is a good thing."

Mr Wilson said schools were making decisions around screen-based learning without explicit guidance from the state.

"We're the one agency that's got the face-to-face five days a week, which puts us at the coalface in terms of having to make decisions that we think will help or hinder," he said.