The latest selections by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to prohibit social media entry for kids beneath 16 and 13 have triggered acquainted reactions some calling it needed, others calling it extreme. But past the talk, there’s a extra necessary sign we must listen to. We are not going through a know-how downside. We are going through a behaviour downside.
For years, schooling methods have been centered on constructing digital literacy. Schools have invested in gadgets, platforms, and connectivity, believing that entry to know-how is the muse of future-readiness. But what we at the moment are witnessing throughout school rooms suggests one thing deeper, literacy is not sufficient. The actual problem as we speak is not whether or not youngsters can use know-how. It is whether or not they can handle it. Access with out self-discipline is not empowerment, it’s publicity.
What school rooms are telling us
Across the colleges we work with, starting from authorities establishments to a few of the largest worldwide faculties there’s a seen shift in how youngsters interact with studying. Teachers converse of students who battle to keep centered past a couple of minutes. Tasks that require sustained pondering are sometimes deserted halfway. Silence feels uncomfortable. There is a continuing want for stimulation.
This is not a failure of students. It is a mirrored image of the environments they’re rising up in. We are working in what is commonly described as the eye financial system, the place platforms are designed not just to interact, however to retain consideration for so long as attainable. For a creating thoughts, this creates an uneven enjoying discipline. Every notification, each scroll, each quick burst of content material trains the mind to count on immediate reward.
The value of fragmented consideration
Over time, this begins to reshape how youngsters suppose, be taught, and reply. What we see in school rooms is not just distraction it’s fragmented consideration. Students are bodily current, however cognitively elsewhere. And when consideration is compromised, all the things else begins to weaken. The potential to suppose deeply. The potential to mirror. The potential to stick with an issue lengthy sufficient to resolve it. If we proceed to ignore this shift, we threat getting ready students who’re digitally expert, however cognitively fragile.
For a long time, schooling has emphasised the “Four Cs”, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity. It is time we recognise a fifth: Consciousness in how we interact with know-how. Because with out it, the opposite 4 can’t maintain themselves.
Conscious use, not just fixed use
Consciousness is not about restriction. It is not about eradicating entry or creating worry round know-how. It is about consciousness. It is about serving to youngsters recognise the place their consideration goes, why it’s going there, and whether or not it deserves to keep there. At its core, it’s about company, the power to pause, to select, and to interact with know-how deliberately, moderately than being unconsciously pushed by it.
We at the moment are seeing the emergence of a brand new divide in schooling. Earlier, the digital divide was about entry, who had know-how and who did not. Today, the divide is about utilization. There are students who use know-how to create, be taught, and discover. And there are those that eat, scroll, and search validation. The distinction is not entry. The distinction is self-discipline. And that is the place faculties are lacking the purpose.
Significant investments are being made in infrastructure – sensible boards, tablets, digital platforms. But little or no consideration is being given to constructing digital behaviour. We are educating youngsters how to entry data, however not how to deal with it.
The actual which means of future-readiness
Schools, subsequently, want to transfer past integrating know-how into school rooms and begin integrating self-discipline into its utilization. This means educating youngsters to turn into conscious of their very own digital habits. It means serving to them distinguish between significant engagement and passive consumption. It means creating structured boundaries throughout the college atmosphere the place know-how is used with intent, not by default.
It additionally means bringing mother and father into the dialog, not as enforcers of guidelines, however as companions in shaping behaviour. The latest coverage selections in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh could provide a brief pause. They could cut back publicity. But they’re not long-term options. You can’t regulate your means into accountable behaviour. You have to educate for it. Because the second restrictions are lifted, youngsters will return to the identical environments, until they’re geared up with the power to navigate them in a different way. This is the shift schooling must make.
Future-ready schooling is not about how early youngsters begin utilizing know-how. It is about how properly they be taught to dwell with it. The aim is not to elevate youngsters who can use know-how. The aim is to elevate youngsters who’re not utilized by it. Schools that perceive this distinction will not just reply to the challenges of as we speak, they may outline the following period of schooling.
(By Syed Sultan Ahmed, Chairperson, The Association of International Schools of India (TAISI), Festival Director, School Cinema International Film Festival (SCIFF) & Founder & Chief Learner, LXL Ideas)
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Published – March 20, 2026 09:00 am IST
