Students in NSW public schools will face new daily limits on screen time from next year, as the state government moves to curb excessive device use and lift falling literacy and numeracy results.
From the start of Term 1, 2027, public schools will recommend caps on the amount of time students spend learning on screens, becoming mandatory from 2028.
Under the new limits, public preschools will have no individual student device use. Kindergarten to Year 2 students will be capped at 15 minutes a day on laptops, tablets or desktop computers, rising to 30 minutes for Years 3 and 4, and 45 minutes for Years 5 and 6.
Years 7 to 10 students will be limited to up to one-quarter of the time per subject, and Years 11 and 12 students up to half the time per subject, with the limits operating across a week of lessons.
Schools will also recommend limiting screen time for homework, with digital devices not recommended for homework before Year 5, and a new guideline recommending at least one hour a day of learning using pen and paper.
The policy includes exemptions for students with disability, additional needs, or students for whom English is not their first language, or where digital support is part of a personalised learning plan.
It follows Programme for International Student Assessment data showing Australian students are nearly twice as likely to spend more than two hours a day using digital devices for learning as the OECD average, while results are falling, particularly among 12 to 15-year-olds in reading and writing.
A $2.5 million state research fund assessing the impact of screen use on learning found only 45 per cent of secondary parents and 32 per cent of primary parents believed the benefits of using technology in class outweighed the disadvantages, with half of students surveyed reporting being distracted by screens.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Prue Car said an entire generation of students were increasingly living in an online world.
“We have a responsibility to ensure their health and education isn’t adversely affected by excessive screen use,” Ms Car said.
“When the research is telling us teenagers are spending as much as seven hours a day on screens, and we are seeing reading and writing skills going backwards for a whole generation of children, we have to act.”
The policy builds on the 2023 ban on mobile phones in schools and recent restrictions on take-home HSC assessments introduced to combat the use of artificial intelligence.
NSW Health Chief Paediatrician Dr Helen Goodwin said a healthy day for children and young people included a mix of being active, getting enough sleep, and building social connections with peers and family.
“We know that too much time spent on screens impacts these important daily activities that support healthy growth and development,” Dr Goodwin said.
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