\n<\/p>\n
Sweden is to implement a nationwide mobile phone ban in all schools in an attempt to improve security and study conditions for students.<\/p>\n
From the next school year, starting in autumn 2026, it will be compulsory for all schools and after-school clubs to collect students\u2019 phones and hold them until the end of the day.<\/p>\n
The new rule, which will affect children between the ages of seven and 16, is part of a package of proposed measures announced by the government on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
As well as the phone ban, proposed changes will cover the curriculum, the grading system and teacher training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are presenting today is a historic budget investment in schools and the biggest reform agenda in over 30 years,\u201d said Sweden\u2019s new education and schools minister, Simona Mohamsson.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Simona Mohamsson, Sweden\u2019s minister for education and integration, said the government was making a \u2018historic budget investment in schools\u2019. <\/span> Photograph: Josefine Stenersen\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The budget bill, which the government will submit next week, allocates 95m kronor (\u00a37.52m) for 2026 and 100m kronor the following year to implement the phone ban.<\/p>\n Most schools in Sweden already confiscate mobile phones at the start of the school day, but students have found ways to get around the ban such as handing in a fake phone or saying that they have forgotten their phone or that it is broken.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should apply to everyone in all of Sweden\u2019s classrooms. It applies to every young person in Sweden and is not optional,\u201d Mohamsson, who is leader of the Liberals party, has previously said of the ban.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sign up to This is Europe<\/span><\/p>\n The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Denmark said it would ban mobile phones in schools and after-school clubs on the recommendation of a government commission that also found children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.<\/p>\n Norway last year announced a strict minimum age of 15 on social media use as the government accused tech companies of being \u201cpitted against small children\u2019s brains\u201d.<\/p>\n Recent research in the Netherlands, which in January 2024 issued national guidelines recommending a ban on smartphones in classrooms, with which almost all Dutch schools have complied, has found improvements to the learning environment. The vast majority (75%) of secondary schools surveyed said that children found it easier to concentrate and 28% said results had improved.<\/p>\n France, meanwhile, tightened its ban on mobile phones in middle schools in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sweden is to implement a nationwide mobile phone ban in all schools in an attempt to improve security and study conditions for students. From the next school year, starting in autumn 2026, it will be compulsory for all schools and after-school clubs to collect students\u2019 phones and hold them until the end of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[163,13352,10021,13353,6186,588,4484],"class_list":{"0":"post-21770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-ban","9":"tag-implement","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-nationwide","12":"tag-phone","13":"tag-schools","14":"tag-sweden"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}