Back to books - Sweden's schools cutting back on digital learning

Sweden's government is championing a renewed focus on physical books, paper and pens in classrooms, designed to reverse falling literacy levels. But doubling down on analogue tools has drawn criticism from tech companies, educators and computer scientists, who argue it could impact pupils' employment prospects, and even damage the Nordic nation's economy. At a high school in Nacka just outside Stockholm, final-year students are unpacking laptops from rucksacks and tote bags, alongside items they say they used less frequently a few years ago. "I now go home from school with new books and papers often," says Sophie, 18. She says one teacher "has started printing all the texts that we use during the lesson", while a digital learning platform in maths lessons has been swapped out for textbook-only teaching. It's an image that clashes with Sweden's reputation as one of Europe's most tech savvy societies, thanks to high levels of digital skills, and a thriving tech start-up scene. Laptops became mainstream in Swedish classrooms in the late 2000s and early 2010s. By 2015, around 80% of pupils at municipal state-funded high schools had individual access to a digital device, according to of