Six European Countries Ditch AI, Tablets and Screens, Bring Back Paper Books.
Six European countries are introducing new education policies that reduce reliance on digital devices in classrooms while expanding the use of printed textbooks, handwriting, and face-to-face learning. Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, and Italy have all announced reforms aimed at limiting smartphones, tablets, and — in Norway’s case — artificial intelligence in schools, following concerns about declining reading performance, reduced concentration, and student wellbeing.
The shift marks a reversal for several governments that spent the 2010s pushing schools toward one-to-one device programs and digital-first curricula. The new policies are backed by education ministry statements, national spending commitments, and a growing body of research examining the relationship between screen use, handwriting, reading achievement, and attention in the classroom. Measures include large investments in printed learning materials, restrictions on mobile phones during the school day, updated curriculum requirements, and new guidance on AI use in education.
Here’s what’s changing in each country, and what the underlying research actually shows.
Sweden Invests Billions in Printed Textbooks
Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, has been one of the clearest voices behind the country’s pivot away from screens. Shortly after taking office as part of a new center-right government, Edholm — long a critic of the country’s heavy classroom tech use — told reporters that Swedish students “need more textbooks,” adding that physical books are important for learning.
The statement followed data showing a real decline. Sweden’s fourth graders still score above the European average for reading, but an international literacy assessment found their scores dropped from 555 points in 2016 to 544 in 2021. Some of that decline is linked to pandemic disruption and a growing share of students who don’t speak Swedish as a first language, but education researchers increasingly point to years of screen-heavy, “independent digital research” style teaching as a contributing factor.
Sweden’s response has been backed by serious money and a national slogan: “från skärm till pärm” — “from screen to binder.” Schools have been allocated more than 2.1 billion krona (roughly $200 million) in grants for textbooks and teacher guides, and a new textbook-based curriculum is due in 2028. Since 2025, Swedish preschools are no longer required to use digital tools, tablets are no longer issued to children under two, and a ban on mobile phones in schools — even for educational use — is being phased in.
A neuroscientist at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, Dr. Sissela Nutley, has described a rising awareness among educators of the disruption technology causes in classrooms. Some commentators note the politics aren’t entirely separable from the science, either — criticizing screen time in schools has become a popular position across much of the political spectrum, not just among researchers.
Denmark Expands School Phone Restrictions
Denmark’s case stands out because of how far the country had gone in the opposite direction first. Denmark was an early digital pioneer, rolling out tablets in schools as far back as 2011 alongside digital IDs and online public services. Today it’s pulling back harder than almost any of its neighbors.
Phones are now banned in Danish schools and after-school clubs, pre-digital teaching methods are being reintroduced, and social media access is set to be restricted for under-15s — all following data that alarmed officials about children’s mental health and school performance. The rollout has a firm timeline: starting in the 2025/2026 school year, students must lock phones in boxes during class, and by 2026/2027 the rule extends into after-school programs. Schools are also installing network filters to block social media, gaming, and streaming sites.
Denmark’s education minister, Mattias Tesfaye, has been direct about the reasoning, saying mobile phones create disruption and stress, and that removing them lets schools focus on “learning, community and peace of mind.” The numbers behind the decision are notable: 2024 ministry surveys found distraction affecting more than a third of Year 6 and Year 8 pupils, and researchers linked rising screen time among 13-to-18-year-olds directly to falling school performance.
The government has committed roughly DKK 540 million (about $77 million) to physical books, plus DKK 2.6 billion toward play environments that encourage in-person interaction. One pilot program alone distributed 17,500 new printed books to classrooms, with a directive that all Danish schools be fully mobile-free by 2027.
Teachers describe the shift in strong terms. At Trongårdsskolen, a school that has also limited computer use, longtime teacher Povlsen called the mobile phone ban the best decision of his 38-year career, saying pupils are talking, playing, and doing sports together again — and learning more than they did before. Researchers caution the goal isn’t a total ban on devices; a Copenhagen School of Design and Technology researcher described it as limiting rather than forbidding phone use, to leave room for other activities.
Norway Restricts Artificial Intelligence in Primary Education
Norway has taken the reversal furthest, becoming one of the first countries in the world to specifically restrict generative AI in classrooms rather than only phones or tablets.
Starting with the new school year in late August 2026, students in grades one through seven — ages six to 13 — will be barred from using generative AI at school. Students aged 14 to 16 may use it only under direct teacher supervision, while those 17 and older are encouraged to use it responsibly on their own.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre framed the decision around fundamentals, saying the most important thing in school is that children learn to read, write, and do mathematics. The government’s official statement went further, warning that uncritical AI use in schools increases the risk of students skipping important stages of learning, and that younger children lack the critical reflection and self-regulation needed to use it well.
The AI restriction builds on a policy Norway introduced two years earlier. The country banned smartphones from classrooms in 2024, and it already has data suggesting the move worked: a study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health found bullying decreased and grade point averages rose after the restriction took effect, particularly among female students. Alongside the new AI rules, Norway’s government also pledged more funding for classroom books rather than computer tablets.
France Extends the “Digital Pause” Policy
France’s rollback has unfolded gradually, moving from a small pilot to a near-total national policy. In September 2024, the government launched a nationwide pilot called the “pause numérique” (“digital pause”) across 200 middle schools, requiring students to physically hand in phones on arrival rather than simply switch them off. Education Minister Elisabeth Borne called the pilot results “very positive, particularly in terms of improving the school climate.”
By early 2025, the digital pause had expanded to all middle schools in France. By late 2025, President Emmanuel Macron was pushing to extend the policy further, and in November 2025 he confirmed that the phone ban would reach all high schools starting in the 2026–2027 school year, with students aged 15 to 18 required to hand in devices at the school gate.
France’s restrictions on phones actually date back to 2018, when the government first banned mobile devices in nurseries, elementary schools, and middle schools — though enforcement was inconsistent until the digital pause pilot introduced physical confiscation. French officials have also framed the policy in public health terms; Health Minister Catherine Vautrin has described the effort as building “a health barrier against screens.”
Italy Revives Paper Homework Diaries
Italy’s policy shift is notable for reaching down to something as small as how children record their homework. Starting in the school year following the July 2024 announcement, Italy banned smartphone use in schools — including for educational purposes — from primary school through junior high (scuola media). Tablets and computers remain allowed, but only under direct teacher guidance.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara was blunt about the reasoning: “I don’t believe that good teaching can be done with a cell phone until middle school,” he said, framing the move as a way to restore teacher authority and reduce bullying. His stronger emphasis, though, was on handwriting itself. Announcing the return of a paper homework diary that students fill in by hand rather than logging assignments digitally, Valditara said the goal is to get children “used to writing again, to the relationship with the pen and with paper.”
Parent groups largely welcomed the change. Antonio Affinita, director of the Italian parents’ organization Moige, warned that children were losing a skill that supports intellectual development, calling handwriting “a way of working and thinking” worth protecting.
Italy’s restrictions build on one of Europe’s oldest school phone policies — a ban on non-academic phone use first introduced in 2007, though enforcement had lapsed over the years before the 2024 tightening. Valditara also pointed to international backing, citing a UNESCO recommendation from the previous year urging schools worldwide to restrict smartphones because of their impact on learning.
Finland Tightens Rules on Phones and Tablets
Finland’s story may be the most sobering of the six, because for years its school system was held up globally as proof that a relaxed, technology-friendly approach could still produce excellent results. Then it leaned further into digital learning than almost any other country — and the results didn’t hold.
In 2016, despite research already showing that students who used computers more often at school performed worse in reading and math, Finland’s government announced it would spend millions of euros expanding digital learning. The scores kept falling. Finland’s PISA results have declined steadily since 2012, and the 2022 results were the worst on record, with math, reading, and science scores all dropping more than 20 points from 2012 levels.
Finland has since reversed course. New legislation took effect in August 2025 banning personal mobile phones, laptops, and tablets during lessons for students in grades one through nine, with digital devices allowed only with a teacher’s explicit permission — for learning support or health needs, for example. Teachers and school leaders were also given clear authority to confiscate disruptive devices. Finland’s education minister linked the change directly to attention spans, citing research showing that while moderate digital use can support learning, excessive screen time weakens students’ ability to concentrate, and stressing that school should remain a place for social interaction rather than solitary screen use.
Researchers caution against attributing Finland’s decline to screens alone. Over the same period, Finland decentralized school quality control, shifting authority from national inspectorates to individual schools and reducing structured oversight — a change some experts believe eroded standards independently of technology. Still, the correlation between rising device use and falling test scores was difficult for policymakers to dismiss, and it helped set the stage for the wider Nordic and European pullback now underway.
Research on Handwriting and Learning
The policy changes across these six countries aren’t happening in a vacuum — they’re backed by a growing body of neuroscience comparing handwriting and typing directly.
The most-cited research comes from Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Using high-density EEG caps — some studies used as many as 256 electrodes — the researchers recorded university students’ brain activity as they either handwrote or typed words that appeared on a screen. The results showed that handwriting produced widespread connectivity in the theta and alpha frequency bands across parietal and central brain regions — patterns closely associated with memory formation — while typing produced far less of that activity.
Neuroscientist Ramesh Balasubramaniam, who reviewed the findings independently, described the difference as striking, noting that even when the physical movements involved are similar, brain activation is much higher during handwriting, suggesting real learning advantages tied to the act of forming letters by hand.
Van der Meer has linked the effect to the complexity of handwriting itself: the careful, precise finger movements required to form letters engage the senses far more than repeatedly striking a key with the same finger. Notably, the researchers believe the benefit applies to printed letters as well as cursive — it’s the act of forming letters by hand that appears to matter, not the specific style of handwriting.
Van der Meer has also raised a broader concern. She has said Norwegian first-grade teachers have told her that some incoming students barely know how to hold a pencil — a sign they may have missed early drawing and coloring activities that help build fine motor and cognitive skills before formal schooling even begins.
The science isn’t entirely settled, and it’s worth noting the pushback. A 2025 commentary from researchers Svetlana Pinet and Marieke Longcamp raised methodological questions about the NTNU studies, pointing out that the typing condition used an unusual single-finger input method rather than realistic two-handed typing, and that participants’ typing skill wasn’t controlled for. That’s a fair scientific caveat. But the broader pattern lines up with older research too, including a widely cited 2014 study showing that students who took notes by hand outperformed those who typed them on later tests of conceptual understanding — suggesting handwriting’s advantage may lie less in speed and more in the slower, more deliberate processing it forces.
Countries Worldwide Are Tightening School Phone Policies
The six countries covered here are the clearest examples of a full pullback — restricting devices, funding textbooks, and in some cases limiting AI — but they’re part of a much broader global trend. The Netherlands, Hungary, Greece, and Australia have all introduced their own school phone restrictions over the past two years, as have several Canadian provinces, including Quebec. By early 2025, trackers monitoring the issue counted more than 79 countries with some form of school phone policy in place.
What sets Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, and Italy apart is the scale of investment behind the policy and how far it reaches beyond phones alone — into textbook funding, curriculum redesign, and, in Norway’s case, AI restrictions for the youngest students.
What the Policy Changes Mean for Education Systems
None of these six governments is rejecting technology altogether. Laptops, computers, and even tablets remain part of daily instruction in every one of these countries, typically for older students and under teacher supervision. What’s changed is the assumption that more digital access automatically improves learning outcomes — an idea that shaped education policy across Europe for the better part of a decade.
The common thread is a narrower, more targeted correction: limiting unsupervised, all-day device access for the youngest learners, restricting AI tools until students have built foundational skills, and pushing reading, handwriting, and arithmetic back to the center of early education. For school systems elsewhere still weighing one-to-one device programs, these six countries now offer a real-world test case — backed by falling PISA scores in some places and improving outcomes in others, such as Norway’s early results after its 2024 smartphone ban.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which countries are reducing screen time in schools? Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, France, and Italy have all introduced measures that reduce reliance on smartphones, tablets, or digital learning while increasing the use of printed materials and handwriting.
Why are countries bringing back paper textbooks? Governments have cited declining reading scores, classroom distractions, concerns about excessive screen exposure, and research on handwriting, memory, and concentration as reasons for expanding printed learning materials.
Has Sweden reduced the use of digital devices in schools? Yes. Sweden has allocated more than 2.1 billion krona to textbooks and teacher guides, ended mandatory digital tools in preschools, and introduced additional restrictions on mobile phones in schools.
Which country has banned AI for younger students? Norway has introduced restrictions preventing students in grades one through seven (ages six to 13) from using generative AI in school, while older students may use it under teacher supervision or age-appropriate guidelines.
Is handwriting better than typing for learning? Research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology indicates handwriting is associated with stronger brain activity linked to memory formation than typing. Researchers note some methodological limitations in the studies and say the evidence is still evolving, but the pattern is consistent with earlier research linking handwriting to better recall and understanding.
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Has Denmark banned phones in schools? Yes. Denmark is phasing in a mobile phone ban that started in the 2025/2026 school year and extends to after-school programs by 2026/2027, alongside a roughly DKK 540 million investment in physical textbooks.
Are these countries banning computers and tablets entirely? No. Computers and tablets generally remain in use for older students and under teacher supervision. The restrictions target unsupervised, all-day access for younger children — along with, in Norway’s case, generative AI tools specifically.
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