The new school year began in mid-August for around one million children in Switzerland.
What used to start with notebooks, pens and books is now increasingly starting with laptops and tablets.
The digitalization of the education system has accelerated significantly in Germany.
An evaluation of cantonal government and parliamentary resolutions shows that over half of the cantons
have launched comprehensive digitalization programmes for their schools in the last four years.
Over 100 million Swiss francs are likely to be invested annually.
This expenditure is justified by the much-vaunted benefits of digital education:
more flexibility, individualized learning paths and the promotion of digital skills, to name but a few.
While Switzerland continues to focus on promoting digital educational landscapes, a
look abroad reveals a different picture.
Countries such as Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden, once pioneers of digital education systems, are
currently taking a step back and calling for a healthy balance between analog and digital teaching.
The long-term consequences of screen use for the health and well-being of children and young
people have not yet been sufficiently documented.
Kla.TV already warned of increasing uncontrolled media consumption among children and young people and the associated rise in health
and psychological effects in a series of broadcasts in 2018.
A study published in 2019 by the German company health insurance fund "pronova BKK" comes to the same conclusion:
"Smartphones, tablets and games consoles are captivating children. This has dramatic consequences for their health.
Pediatricians are seeing health problems in children of all ages, which they attribute to the increasing use of media."
Three quarters of the pediatricians surveyed found that children between the ages of ten
and thirteen in particular have health problems.
The pediatricians report an increase in social problems in 79% of cases, increasing obesity in 75%, language
development disorders in 70%, motor deficits in 66% and learning development disorders in 59% of cases.
A hitherto largely unnoticed side effect is casting an increasingly dark shadow over the progress of digital education:
the rapid increase in short-sightedness among children.
A recent study by a Chinese research team provides alarming figures:
One in three children worldwide is already short-sighted - and the trend is rising.
According to forecasts, by 2050 around 40% of all children aged five and over will be living with myopia .
Such a massive increase would have far-reaching consequences for health, education and society.
The independent news channel "uncut news" published a series of studies that prove the negative effects
of using digital screens on children's eye health.
A meta-analysis published in June 2024 in the journal BMC Public Health, which analyzed data from 19 studies involving 102,360
children and adolescents from East Asia, South Asia, Europe and North America, found that screen time in
front of computers has the greatest impact on myopia.
The researchers also observed that for every additional hour of daily screen time, the likelihood of developing
myopia increased by 7%, illustrating how even small increases in screen use over time contribute to myopia.
In addition to visual impairment, myopia leads to other health and lifestyle-related problems.
In 2023, the Danish Minister for Children and Education Mattias Tesfaye apologized in an interview for the fact that a generation
of Danish children and young people were used as guinea pigs in a digital experiment, the extent
and consequences of which could not be foreseen.
The classroom is not an extension of the teenage bedroom, where people stream, play and shop.
For too long, schools have been subservient to the big tech companies and society has been too
"in love" with the wonders of the digital world.
Shouldn't the expansion of the digital education system also be reconsidered in this country?
There is still an opportunity to learn from the findings of pioneering countries such as Denmark and to develop
an education system that not only spares children's eyes but also promotes their general well-being.
Help raise awareness of the risks of digital education among parents, teachers, school
authorities and policy makers by sharing this program.