Almost all Hungarian parents agree that paper-based teaching materials are not outdated

By: Trademagazin Date: 2024. 10. 30. 11:10

Epson’s latest European research has shown that the majority of teachers and parents prefer the use of traditional teaching materials in schools. According to 63% of those surveyed, they improve reading skills, and 47% say they help retain knowledge.While 60% of Hungarian parents and 55% of teachers believe that the active use of laptops will promote future employability, nearly half believe that it harms social skills or impairs reading skills. Moreover, 42% of Hungarian parents think that laptop use has a harmful effect on learning.

The company serves 40,000 parents – approx. per country. 1,000 – and 8,000 teachers – per country approx. 200 – asked about their personal experiences, opinions and attitudes regarding modern, digital technology and traditional, analog, paper-based materials. As smartphones have been banned from schools in Hungary since this academic year, however, students can use laptops in a limited form, the results of the research are even more interesting in the domestic context.For example, 62% of Hungarian parents would be especially happy if paper-based teaching materials played a greater role in schools, and almost everyone agrees that they improve reading, learning, activity or knowledge retention.

The research agrees with the fact that, especially in Western Europe, they have been promoting technical developments with serious investments for several years: prioritizing the fact that as many students as possible have access to laptops. However, teachers have now expressed their concern, as 40% of them believe that computers and tablets can have a negative impact on learning processes. In contrast, teachers and parents have almost unanimously experienced some kind of positive effect from paper-based teaching materials.The issue also has a serious social impact: a third of Hungarian parents feel that the use of school computers also makes it clear who can afford their own laptop or other device, and who is in a worse financial situation.

86% of teachers indicated one or more challenges when using digital tools. According to about a third, reading skills deteriorated and retention of knowledge was limited, while a quarter experienced that students participated less in classes. 16% thought they discovered a correlation with a decrease in performance.According to more than 40% of Hungarian teachers, the excessive use of laptops can lead in the long term to a society in which people are less able to cooperate with each other personally and normally, and are unable to retain information without the help of devices, in addition to struggling with reading problems.