Finland wants to reverse downward trends in PISA school aptitude tests, and promote a focused learning environment, with new laws around mobile phone use

“The government will reinforce the powers of teachers and principals to intervene in activities that disrupt teaching during school hours,” the government announced Monday.

“We will make the necessary legislative amendments to enable more efficient restrictions in cases such as the use of mobile devices during the school day so that pupils and students can better concentrate on teaching,” it added.

In Finland, the prominence of mobile phones, deeply linked to Nokia’s success, has long been unquestioned. Children in the country are equipped with mobile phones at an earlier age compared to their counterparts elsewhere, with many already possessing one upon entering school.

Despite concerns raised by educators regarding the detrimental effects of these devices on attention and concentration, the existing regulations set by the Finnish National Agency for Education do not empower schools to restrict students from bringing mobile devices onto their premises.

This sounds like the Finnish parliament is enabling the option for teachers and the like to ban phones from school, rather than banning them nationally from school? Title is a bit misleading imho.

That being said. I'm queasy on this. On one hand, we're not getting mobile phones out of people've lives again. It's just not possible, and this sounds like rightwing virtue signaling. On the other, smartphones do genuinely shorten people's attention spans and a place without them present might help... But then really the whole school would have to hand them in when walking in and get them back when walking back out. Who will control that?

As an American, the notion of a right-wing government that wants to improve public education doesn't compute.

As far as the idea of banning phones in schools is concerned, I think maybe an outright ban of phones in schools is a bit much but bans on phone use during class-time are totally reasonable and should be encouraged (assuming they're allowing the classroom teachers make the choice for their individual classrooms-- some teachers might want to take advantage of the technology in their lessons).