Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThere shouldn\u2019t be any more than two hours. We want eyes up, screens down,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA full reset in the classroom is so important \u2013 for behaviour, for calmness, for the students\u2019 own mental health \u2013 the focus needs to be on the most important adult in the classroom, and that\u2019s the teacher, and that\u2019s why we are moving down this [path] with a relentless focus on excellence inside every classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melinda Davis, a senior lecturer in education at Swinburne University of Technology and former secondary school teacher, welcomed the announcement, saying technology is being used in schools \u201cin a way that it was never intended.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said laptops have \u201ccompletely overtaken\u201d traditional note-taking and research in classrooms, with students even using their screens during breaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a social issue as much as an education issue \u2026 many young people use screens to avoid social interaction,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
But given this reliance, she questioned how a two-hour limit would be implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking screens away is good, but how will teachers actually manage that?\u201d she said \u201cIt puts an incredible onus on them to manage students who suddenly don\u2019t have devices. We know about the impact of screen time on the brain. If you take that away from someone very quickly, there are going to be negative responses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite these concerns, Davis said other states should \u201cabsolutely\u201d follow Victoria\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
Carroll said exceptions would exist for students with a disability or neurodiversity who rely on technology, as well as for those studying specialist subjects.<\/p>\n
Smartphones have been banned in Victorian state schools since 2020. The policy was later adopted across non-government schools and then rolled out across the rest of Australia, with the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory and Queensland the last jurisdictions to introduce phone bans in term one, 2024.<\/p>\n
From 2027, Victoria will expand the ban to include smartwatches and headphones, further limiting students\u2019 access to personal technology during the school day.<\/p>\n
Carroll said the measures follow \u201cworld best practice\u201d recommended by international experts.<\/p>\n
He said \u201ctech giants\u201d and their algorithms \u201cdo not have these young people\u2019s best interests at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re focused on eyeballs. We\u2019re focused on their minds and their hearts for the future,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
Joining Carroll and the premier, Jacinta Allan, at the announcement was Anthony Oldmeadow, the principal of Ngayuk college in Kalkallo, in Melbourne\u2019s outer north, who described the screen limit as a \u201creally positive step\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what technology brings is great opportunity, great ability to connect, to be global citizens, but what we do know is that there\u2019s a side of technology that is distracting for students,\u201d Oldmeadow said.<\/p>\n
He said the government\u2019s approach would \u201climit that distraction\u201d while still allowing technology when \u201cused purposefully.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian secondary school students will spend less time on screens and more time using pen and paper under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-738017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}