PISA Australia: report finds computers in schools reduce academic outcomes

Computers in schools are hindering students’ basic literacy skills, with a new Programme for International Assessment report finding countries with more computers are performing worse in reading.

• Time to put ego aside and get students back to class
• Time for a complete reset of our education system

Computers in schools are hindering students’ basic literacy skills, with a new Programme for International Assessment report finding countries with more computers are performing worse in reading.

Australia is ranked eighth in the world in terms of the number of computers per student among Organisation for Economic Cooperation nations- well above high achieving countries including Finland and Estonia.

Meanwhile Australian students’ PISA results plunged in 2018 to 25th in the world in maths, 16th in reading and 14th in science.

The latest report said countries with fewer computers per student per school scored better than countries with schools flush with computers like Australia.

Australian schools have one of the highest rates of computer use in schools.

“On average across OECD countries, one additional computer per student in a school was associated with a 12-point drop in reading scores before accounting for other factors, and with a 6-point decline after accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic profile” it said.

The latest report also noted the presence of laptops in schools was also shown to have no positive benefit to student results while access to the internet in schools also did nothing to lift students’ outcomes.

Centre for Independent Studies researcher Glenn Fahey said it confirmed previous research finding technology hindered reading outcomes.

“We know that there are different cognitive processes used when you’re reading off a screen and that correlation has been quite clear for some time now,” he said.

“One reason for that is the additional time spent reading through digital means does reduce the reading time by traditional means.”

The report also found poor kids from Australian schools could achieve results in the test’s top percentiles.

He said the report also confirmed previous findings that disadvantaged Australian children did better than their overseas counterparts, contrary to claims the Australian schooling system was disadvantaging children from poor backgrounds.

“It is a bit of gaslighting because what (critics) are failing to recognise is that overall resourcing in Australia is one of the highest in the world which means disadvantaged schools are still really well resourced compared to other countries,” he said.

“PISA reports in several cycles have shown that Australian students even from disadvantaged backgrounds do over achieve compared to other countries which suggests we’re doing well in some respects.”

The report also found the nation’s schools were among the world’s richest, with Australian school principals the fifth least likely to say they had a shortage of material resources.

The report noted Australia was among countries where one in 10 disadvantaged students were able to score in the top quarter of reading performance, leading the report authors to conclude “poverty is not destiny.”

Originally published as PISA Australia: report finds computers in schools reduce academic outcomes