Dr Alan Finkel was Australia’s 8^th Chief Scientist advising the Australian government on science and technology, and also Chancellor of Monash University. Here is what he wrote this week in The Australian on AI and technology in education, starting with an example from Norway:

The Norwegian government gets it. In June, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere announced a legislative ban on generative AI in primary schools and massively restricted its use in upper school years. At the same time, the Norwegian government shifted state funding from individual computer devices to physical printed textbooks.

The sequence in Norway is that in the 1990s it was one of the first countries to introduce computers in schools. Then it was an early implementer of an iPad-per-child program, starting in 2010. The result was a gradual decline in Norwegian student achievement in national testing of reading and writing.

To address this decline, the Norwegian government decided to revert to traditional education. Under the new legislation, which came into effect this month at the start of the current school year, AI has been banned from primary schools for Years 1 to 7. AI can be used under strict supervision in years 8 to 10 and used more freely in upper secondary school. Smartphones have been banned from schools in Norway since 2024 and smartwatches heavily restricted.

Studies have shown that since then there has been a measurable improvement in student grade point averages, a significant decline in playground and digital bullying, and a remarkable 60 per cent drop in visits to psychological specialists for anxiety and mental health support.

They “decided to revert to traditional education”! 

Remember when Steiner schools were laughed at for being traditional, for holding children back from embracing the digital age? We were in fact concerned about superficial digital gimmicks that undermined healthy brain growth in children. But now the tide is turning, and it’s worldwide, not just in Norway. For example, Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn has just announced a review of technology in primary education in particular, and states their concern:

The digital facade in education is crumbling before the weight of evidence that, far from revolutionising education, it has contributed to a decline in standards and affected the development of growing brains.

[See:  https://region.com.au/catholic-education-is-asking-the-big-questions-and-the-public-sector-should-too/993842/ ]

Have Steiner schools been acknowledged for our pioneering stand? Actually, yes, for while Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn is claiming to be leading the way in this field, it has the grace to recognise we were there first:

Catholic Education has set itself an ambitious and challenging task, but it is again taking the lead…although it has to be said that the Steiner education movement has been running integrated curricula in a low-tech environment for a long time and has often been criticised as anti-progress and old-fashioned. The new research showing how the brain works in learning that is driving programs.... now reveals it was on to something.“

Yes. We were “on to something”!

Thank you CECG for the acknowledgement. The evidence is in on the impact of technology and social media on young people. I think we stand vindicated and can be quietly proud of our record. As they say, we have been on the right side of history.

Andrew Hill
CEO 
Steiner Education Australia