Private, Catholic and public schools are reducing their reliance on laptops and tablets following a damning international assessment and concerns over the impact of social media on learning.

"The reality is that technology is doing more harm than good in our schools today," the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's education chief Andreas Schleicher told world leaders at a global education forum this month.

Last week, John Vallance, the principal of one of Sydney's most expensive private schools, Sydney Grammar, said that laptops were not necessary in class and that more traditional teaching methods were more effective.

Schools in the Catholic sector are also moving away from laptop centred learning after an OECD report found that countries which have invested heavily in education technology have seen no noticeable improvement in their performances in results for reading, mathematics or science.