Students huddle together in the corridor, chatter filling the air on a break between classes at a school in Finland, where mobile phones have been banned since school resumed last month.
At Kungsvagens Skola for students aged 13 to 15 in Sipoo, northeast of Helsinki, teachers collect students’ phones in the morning and lock them in a storage room until the end of the school day.
Principal Maria Tallberg said the transition to a phone-free school had “exceeded expectations.”
Photo: AFP
“Of course, they (students) grumbled a bit in the beginning, especially since they can’t use them during breaks, but they also understand why, deep down,” Tallberg said. “Many have also said they were not aware they were so addicted to their phones.”
The new law banning phones during class-time came into force on Aug. 1 across Finland, a country long known for its high-quality education. Several municipalities and individual schools have now chosen to extend the ban to breaks as well.
Previously, the Finnish National Agency for Education had recommended that schools restrict the use of mobile phones in classrooms. The ban comes amid a global debate on how smartphone use affects not only mental and overall health, but also learning and education.
Reports, including one from UNESCO in 2023, have warned that phones in the classroom can hamper learning by causing distraction.
Several countries have adopted similar restrictions, including Taiwan, South Korea, Italy, the Netherlands and France.
’VERY DIFFERENT’
Annika Railila, a chemistry teacher at Kungsvagens Skola, said classrooms were now calmer and students less distracted.
“Before, we had to remind them almost every lesson that the phone stays in their bag and you don’t use it during the lessons.”
Students also socialize more during breaks now, she said.
“You actually get to see their eyes and faces, which is a lot nicer than to say hello to someone who’s looking at the screen,” she added.
Fifteen-year-old Kie Lindfors described the school environment as “very different.”
“I talk more with people and there is a room in the school where there are board games and stuff so that’s been lots of fun on recess, going there to play,” he said.
His classmate Lotta Knapas felt the school had become “a lot more noisy” and “wild.”
“I understand that we can’t use them in lessons but I think it is kind of dumb they take them away from us for the whole day,” she said.
Meanwhile, Oscar Ingman, 14, feared some students might feel more lonely.
“I see more people being more sociable, more people talking and so on. But I also do see occasionally some people just sitting alone in a corridor,” he said.
The school aimed to organize activities to prevent kids from having nothing to do, the principal said, noting that Internet bullying at the school had already decreased.
“Students used to take pictures and film both during lessons and a lot on breaks, and we often had to investigate when video clips were shared everywhere,” said Tallberg.
REVERSE THE TREND
Finland’s new law was adopted after education scores plunged, Finnish Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz said.
“We have noticed in Finland, as in many other countries, that our reading and mathematic skills have deteriorated and the Finnish approach is to think about how we can create more space for learning and teaching,” Adlercreutz said. “Removing disturbing elements from the classroom helps.”
The latest results from the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2022 showed Finnish 15-year-olds’ skills in mathematics, reading comprehension and science had declined.
Finland nonetheless still ranked above the OECD average for all subjects among the 38 member countries.
The phone ban did not mean schools were exiting the digital world, Adlercreutz insisted.
“It is important for children to have physical books, but they also need to be digitally literate,” he said.
“But in a world that is moving so fast, perhaps the role of schools is also to teach slowness, to be a place where you have to force yourself to read longer texts, focus on one thing, and work purposefully toward a long-term goal.”
The arithmetic is straightforward and uncomfortable. By the end of 2025, Taiwan had committed itself to a 50-30-20 electricity mix — half natural gas, 30 per cent coal, 20 per cent renewables. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’s (MOEA) own monthly energy reports tell a different story. Natural gas reached 47.8 per cent of generation last year. Coal stood at 35.4 per cent, comfortably above its target ceiling. Renewables came in at 13.1 per cent, well short of the 20 per cent Taipei had pledged a decade earlier. Installed renewable capacity reached roughly half of the 12 gigawatts (GW) the government
There are shadowy cabals plotting to sell out Taiwan to be annexed by China, by invasion if necessary. Fortunately, they are buffoons. In 2019, former Bamboo Union gangster and founder of the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP), Chang An-le (張安樂, colorfully known as “White Wolf”), led a protest at the Legislative Yuan against comments made by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that in the event of an attack by China, he would never surrender, but would protect the nation by fighting to the end, even if he only had a broom. Chang had party members bring a wooden casket that they
Taiwan’s drone exports are taking off, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, as Taiwanese companies seek a stake in the fast-growing global market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Low-cost drones used for reconnaissance and strikes are in high demand as governments around the world boost defense spending in the face of intensifying conflicts. A relative new player in the increasingly competitive industry, Taiwan’s pitch is to be an “Asian hub” for the production of UAVs and components free of Chinese materials, or “non-red.” That means its UAVs can be up to three times more expensive than their Chinese competitors, like the world’s biggest
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over
RSS