Interview - Sunrise

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: Well, major changes could be on the way to Australia's classrooms as Education Ministers from right across the country prepare to meet next week. And high on the agenda is the impact of screen time on our kids.

DAVID WOIWOD, HOST: It's been revealed Aussie students spend an average two and a half hours a day on screens, almost more than an hour than their international peers. And while some states have already brought in screen time limits, there's a new push to take it even further. And joining us now is Education Minister Jason. Clare, good morning to you. In your opinion, has screen time in schools just gone too far now?

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: The short answer's yes. 

I'm not saying that we should burn the iPads, but I reckon most parents would agree with me that we need a little less screen time and a bit more pen and paper in our schools. 

It’s not just an old-school idea, it actually works. 

The evidence is telling us that if you have a little bit less screen time, your results at school will improve. I reckon most mums and dads know the impact that screens are having on their kids at home, turning them into little zombies, frying attention spans. But for a while now, we thought that more screens meant better results at school. It's not always the case. 

We've got a study that came out the other day that showed that a lot of kids are spending a lot of time on screens at school. Not actually learning, but Googling and gaming and watching TV and sending messages to their friends. And there’s mounting evidence here that if we dial it back a bit, then it's going to be good in terms of not just mental health, but also the results we see at school.

WRIGHT: What does the evidence show us about the ideal time limit for screens? And are you looking to then mandate that?

CLARE: Yeah, it’s different for different age levels. So, in New York and in LA, they've just said no screens for little kids in kindergarten or prep, but they're limiting it to about half an hour for kids in the later years of primary school and limiting it to about an hour or two at high school. 

And as you pointed out in your intro, NSW and, I think, Victoria have already said they're going to do this next year. In WA, they're going to pilot it in a bunch of schools to see the impact that it has. And so, this is the sort of thing we're going to talk about when Education Ministers meet next week, but not just that, we're also going to talk about whether we change the NAPLAN test that all kids do, and whether the writing part of that should go back to pen and paper rather than typing it out, particularly for kids in primary school. And the other thing we're going to have a look at is artificial intelligence and the way it's used or should be used at school.

I think everyone watching will remember we didn't get a calculator when we were in kindergarten. You've got to learn how to count before you're given a tool to do it at speed. You've got to build those mental muscles. And that's the same reason why in New York and in LA and in a couple of countries around the world, they've said, look, we're going to hit the pause button on the use of AI in primary school and we're going to try and limit its role outside school for homework. China just did a study with about 26,000 high school kids where they gave them AI, and guess what happened? Their homework results went up by 18 per cent, and their exam results went down by 20 per cent. So, it helped them to do their homework, but when the books are closed, they hadn't learnt as much. So, that's what I want to talk to Ministers about next week.

WOIWOD: Yep, they're all major issues confronting modern students. Minister, thanks for your time today.

CLARE: Good on you. Thanks, guys.