New laws curbing the use of mobile phones in Finnish schools came into force on Friday ahead of their reopening after the summer holidays.
The Nordic country, long known for its high-quality education, has seen its rating fall in an OECD ranking that measures the competence of 15-year-olds in mathematics, literacy and natural sciences.
An amendment to the Basic Education Act, which bans the use of mobile phones by students aged from seven to 16 while classes are on, was passed in April.
Now, phones and other mobile devices can only be used in class with the teacher's permission for learning purposes and as an aid or for health reasons.
Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported that a school in the eastern town of Varkaus will require its estimated 700-odd pupils to keep their phones in their bags or in lockers throughout the day, including recess.
In the western Finnish city of Tampere, students can use phones during breaks but only outside the school building.
The Finnish National Agency for Education has called for stricter rules than set out in the law, recommending that mobile devices be banned during mealtime and that their use is restricted during breaks.
In the latest round of the OECD assessment for 2022, 41 percent of Finnish students said the use of digital resources distracted them in all or most mathematics lessons, a figure markedly higher than the OECD average of 31 percent.
Not the only one
Finland is not alone in waking up to the negative fallout of phone use on grades.
Earlier this year, Denmark announced a full mobile phone ban in schools, citing concerns about schools being “colonised by digital platforms.”
The chair of Denmark’s wellbeing commission urged other European countries to adopt similar rules after findings showed that 94 percent of Danish youth had social media accounts before age 13 and spent an average of three hours daily on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
Similar policies have been adopted in France, which banned phone use in schools in 2018. The country is piloting a "digital pause" for under-15s. Norway also recently introduced a strict minimum social media age of 15.
Hungary last year introduced stricter restrictions that say students are not allowed to use phones in classrooms.
In Belgium, the use of smartphones for students in primary and secondary schools in its French-speaking regions and the capital Brussels has been prohibited in the new academic year.
In the UK, although there’s no nationwide ban, nearly all primary schools and most secondary schools report having phone restrictions in place.
Collectively, these actions reflect a growing concern across Europe about the impact of digital technology on children’s learning and wellbeing.
