Norway is taking another step towards limiting the impact of technology on children’s education. The government has announced that, from the start of the new school year, primary school pupils aged between 6 and 13 will, as a rule, not use generative artificial intelligence whilst learning. The decision forms part of a wider national strategy, following the government’s earlier ban on the use of smartphones in schools and its announcement of restrictions on children’s access to social media.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre argues that using AI tools too early may lead to key stages of learning being overlooked. According to the government, the most important task of schools remains the development of basic skills such as reading, writing and maths. The new guidelines are set to come into force at the end of August, coinciding with the start of the new school year.
The approach adopted differentiates the rules according to the pupils’ age. Young people aged between 14 and 16 will only be allowed to use AI under the supervision of teachers and to a limited extent. Secondary school pupils, on the other hand, are to learn how to use this technology responsibly as preparation for higher education and the labour market.
The decision is a response to the deteriorating educational outcomes observed across the country. For years, Norway has been a pioneer in the digitisation of schools. Computers appeared in classrooms as early as the 1990s, and following the launch of the iPad, schools increasingly replaced textbooks with tablets. Now the government wants to partially reverse this trend and has announced funding for more traditional books in schools.
Norway’s move shows that the debate on artificial intelligence in education is entering a new phase. It is no longer a question of whether AI should be present in schools, but when and to what extent. Oslo is not rejecting the technology itself, but is opting for a model in which pupils’ basic skills are developed first, and only then are advanced digital tools introduced.
