114 | EDUCATION ASIA | DISCOVER | Excellence in EdTech
What Parents Are Really Worried About It’s no surprise that parental concern around screen usage is a pivotal issue in schools. When Hachette Learning visited schools across Southeast Asia and the Middle East in October 2025, more than half of schools expressed that parents are worried about their children using digital devices at home.
The rise in technology in classrooms has also seen a rise in the effects on young people including concentration difficulties, disrupted sleep, and negative impacts on wellbeing. Whilst it is important for students to be digital-forward, it is equally important that they are adequately protected. If we continue to integrate technology into the classroom, we need to consider the impact on the health and wellbeing of staff and students. What was once a supplement to teaching has become, for many schools, the primary medium of it.
In Dubai, secondary teachers shared that parents didn't want their children "on devices all the time". In Oman, the preference for print was particularly strong - parents described choosing to "return to pen and paper". And across multiple regions, the concern was especially pronounced for younger children, with several schools noting they limit or delay device use until age eight or nine.
In Bangkok, one school expressed that digital use was "fairly taboo" at home.
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