Books Before Bytes

A child asks an artificial-intelligence chatbot to explain a poem, solve a sum or write a paragraph before learning to read the question carefully. This is no longer futuristic. AI can personalise practice, translate languages and help teachers prepare lessons. But when answers arrive instantly, what happens to curiosity, patience and independent thought? The question is urgent as several European education systems, after enthusiastically digitising classrooms are restoring printed books, handwriting and phone-free learning. Their message is not that technology has no place in education. It is that tools must serve learning, not displace it.

For generations, schooling relied on the teacher, blackboard, textbook, notebook and conversation. Children learned through listening, recitation, reading aloud, mental arithmetic and written exercises. Later, activity-based learning, laboratories, libraries, computers and the internet widened access to information and made lessons interactive.

The latest European developments suggest a more measured phase. Sweden has funded textbook purchases and is shifting towards printed material and foundational skills after years of extensive digitisation. Finland’s 2025 law restricts pupils’ use of phones and other personal devices during lessons, with exceptions for learning and health needs. France is extending its ‘Portable en pause’ approach across public lower-secondary schools in 2025-26. Italy has tightened classroom phone restrictions, while Denmark is moving towards mobile-free public schools and has issued guidance to reduce screen use. These policies reflect a common concern: constant connectivity can undermine concentration and the social life of schools.

Finland’s experience is instructive. The town of Riihimäki, which had replaced many textbooks with devices, returned to books and pen-and-paper work after teachers and parents reported distraction and weaker concentration. Technology without sound pedagogy, teacher preparation and boundaries can become an expensive distraction.

Health Hazards

Screens offer speed, animation and access but more screen time is not synonymous with deeper learning. Notifications, games, messaging and browser tabs fragment attention. Students may skim rather than read, copy rather than compose and search for ready-made answers rather than wrestle with a problem. Prolonged use can contribute to eye strain, sedentary habits and disrupted sleep.

The evidence calls for nuance, not panic. The OECD’s 2024 analysis found that three-quarters of students across OECD countries spent more than an hour each weekday browsing social networks, while nearly one in three reported being distracted by digital devices in class. A 2021 meta-analysis of 39 studies involving 1,812 children found that, where digital and print storybooks differed only by medium, children generally understood the printed versions better. Yet carefully designed digital tools can support vocabulary, accessibility and practice. The problem is excessive, passive or poorly supervised use, not the screen itself.

Handwriting deserves renewed respect. Forming letters and organising thoughts on a page require coordinated motor and cognitive effort. Writing by hand slows a learner enough to select, process and remember ideas. Reading a physical book encourages sustained attention and deeper engagement with the text. These are essential habits that cannot be acquired merely by scrolling through digital content.

India should draw lessons without importing European policies mechanically. Digital platforms can bridge distance, provide content in Indian languages and support children with disabilities. AI, used responsibly by teachers, can create differentiated exercises, explain concepts and assist translation. But in the foundational years, it must not replace a teacher, storyteller or thinking partner. Young children need conversation, play, movement, picture books, handwriting and human feedback before they can use AI critically.

The National Education Policy 2020 places foundational literacy and numeracy at the centre of early schooling and promotes learning in the home language where possible. This priority should shape everyday practice: daily reading from printed books, regular handwriting and arithmetic, oral expression, library periods, outdoor play and teacher-led discussion. Schools should establish phone-free teaching hours, keep personal devices away unless a lesson genuinely requires them and set age-appropriate limits on recreational screen exposure. Homework should not routinely require children to spend more hours online.

Governments should invest in libraries, affordable textbooks, trained teachers and accessible learning materials before making devices compulsory. Assessment should reward original writing and problem-solving, not merely the speed of retrieving information. Parents, too, must model balanced technology habits at home.

The choice before India is not between a nostalgic past and a digital future. Let children first learn to read deeply, write clearly, calculate confidently, ask questions and listen to one another. Then let digital tools and AI extend those abilities.

(The writer is a former college Principal and Founder of Supporting Shoulders, an Odisha-based non-profit Trust. Views personal.)