Sweden goes back to pencil and paper: Why one of Europe's most tech-savvy countries is scaling back digital education

In Sweden, the country that created Spotify and is renowned for its digital culture, the government has decided to return to books, paper, and pen in schools. The reason? According to Minister Joar Forsell, “Reading real books and writing on real paper is much better if you want children to acquire the knowledge they need.” This is in a country where, until recently, 80% of students had their own laptop in class, and tablets were mandatory even in preschool. The global trend is usually the opposite: more technology equals greater educational progress. But Sweden is saying the opposite: fewer screens, more paper. The argument is straightforward: Swedish children read worse, understand less, and are more distracted when they study digitally. In fact, in 2022, a quarter of the country's teenagers did not meet the minimum reading comprehension level, lagging behind the United Kingdom, the United States, and even Finland. The shift is so radical that starting in 2025, preschools will no longer be required to use tablets, cell phones will be banned in the classroom, and the state has invested over $200 million in printed books and textbooks. The phrase the government keeps repeating is “from screen to binder.” But the debate is far from simple. Sissela Nutley, a neuroscientist at Karolinska Institute, warns that excessive screen time may even affect children's brain development. Some studies suggest that reading digitally makes it harder to process information. And most commonly, students get distracted by watching what others are doing on their screens. But the tech industry is not sitting idly by. Jannie Jeppesen, CEO of Swedish Edtech, says that 90% of future jobs will require digital skills. Sweden is the largest producer of tech unicorns per capita in Europe, with companies such as Spotify and Legora. She fears that if young people don't master digital tools, those companies will simply move elsewhere. She also highlights the risk of creating a “digital divide”: children from more affluent families will have an advantage because their parents can teach them digital skills at home. And although the government wants artificial intelligence to be taught only in high school, some believe it should be taught starting in elementary school. At a school in Nacka, near Stockholm, 18-year-old Sophie says she now comes home with more printed books and papers. Her teacher has stopped using digital platforms for math. Alexios, another student, agrees: his younger siblings should avoid screens at school because they “lose focus.” But 19-year-old Jasmine disagrees: “If we're realistic, everyone uses computers.” And so, the country that first embraced digitalization in schools is now the first to backpedal. There is one angle that is rarely discussed: perhaps the real problem is neither paper nor screens, but rather inequality in the quality of teachers and the distribution of resources. A recent report by the Swedish National Agency for Education shows that, beyond technology, there are huge differences in what each child receives depending on their neighborhood. Perhaps the question is not whether to use a screen or paper, but rather who gets the best teacher. What makes the difference is not always the medium, but the context. You can sum it up like this: In Sweden, educational technology is not neutral; it can create or close gaps, depending on who uses it and how. If you think Sweden's story resonates with you, in Lara Notes you can mark it with I'm In: it's not a 'like'; it's your way of saying that this educational question now belongs to you. And if you end up talking about the battle between paper and screen with someone—at the dinner table, at work, on the bus—you can mark it in Lara Notes with Shared Offline: that way, you confirm that the conversation was important to both of you. This story comes from BBC News Mundo and saved you over 10 minutes of reading time.