For the hours we usually put in front of screens, evenings and weekends, students, parents, teachers and associations have developed a program of activities. Nineteen schools of different ages will participate in the Northern Basque Country, with the theme already discussed in the school, and in addition, parents have received a guide that helps the initiative. The goal is to carry out the challenge of “Leave screens for 10 days”.

The concern is not new: the time we spend year after year in front of the screen grows and the data indicates that the confinement increased that time. In daily life we far exceed the limits recommended by the health return organizations: “Hyperconnection lives us, our children have become commodities.” The initiative aims to develop healthier habits in the long term: releasing more face to face, reducing sedentary lifestyle, increasing physical activity, better sleeping, spending more time outdoors, offering more time to read on paper…

Over 60,000 people

This morning on Tuesday, the inauguration of the challenge was celebrated at the Sainte Marie de Biarritz school. The initiative, involving leading athletes, will continue until 23 May. The idea that emerged in Québec, Canada, in 2003, is realized in Euskal Herria since 2018, with a growing participation of children and young people. In the French State, more than 60,000 people have faced the challenge this year.

The organization highly values the results of previous editions: if it is organized well 95% meets the challenge, parents have perceived positive changes in their daily habits and teachers say that thanks to the initiative students have developed a critical attitude towards the screens.

Overexposure to screens also at school?

The challenge is focused on leisure, but there are also many parents who are being critical of the digitization process being carried out in education, in the French state. Instead of teaching how to get involved in the digital environment, the CoLINE group has denounced, as we counted in ARGIA, that classes are being filled with screen and digital technologies directly and that a dangerous road is being made without reflection. They believe that the delivery of the tablet or laptop to every child and young person does not guarantee better learning, but they are developing many skills and other negative consequences, and have sent an open letter to the French Minister of Education to question the digitization of schools and take action.