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Education·The Trace·Automated dual reading·Published 2026-07-12

Estonia eschews phone bans in schools and takes leap into AI

While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia – regarded as the new European education powerhouse – students are regularly asked to use their devices in class, and from September they will be given their own AI accounts. The small Baltic country – population 1.4 million – has quietly become Europe’s top performer in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s programme for international student assessment (Pisa), overtaking its near neighbour Finland. In the most recent Pisa…

TRV-2026-0100JournalismPermanent record — cite & verify
Trace impact reading

Contested: both sides are scored from claims and sources, not community votes.

P 67The P score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the problem claim, the strength of this Trace’s sources, and problem-side source support across the same sector.G 70The G score combines the specificity and measured human impact of the gain claim, the strength of this Trace’s sources, and gain-side source support across the same sector.
Estonia eschews phone bans in schools and takes leap into AI
The quick read

While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia, regarded as the new European education powerhouse, students are regularly asked to use their devices in class, and from September they will be given their own AI accounts. The small Baltic country, population 1.4 million, has quietly become Europe’s top performer in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s programme for international student assessment (Pisa), overtaking its near neighbour Finland.

Now Estonia is launching a national initiative called AI Leap, which it says will equip students and teachers with “world-class artificial intelligence tools and skills”. Licences are being negotiated with OpenAI, which will make Estonia a testbed for AI in schools.

Main points
  • While many schools in England have banned smartphones, in Estonia, regarded as the new European education powerhouse, students are regularly asked to use their devices in class, and from September they will be given their own AI accounts.
  • The small Baltic country, population 1.4 million, has quietly become Europe’s top performer in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s programme for international student assessment (Pisa), overtaking its near neighbour Finland.
  • In the most recent Pisa round, held in 2022 with results published a year later, Estonia came top in Europe for maths, science and creative thinking, and second to Ireland in reading.
Gain

The aim is to provide free access to top-tier AI learning tools for 58,000 students and 5,000 teachers by 2027, starting with 16- and 17-year-olds this September.

Problem

The aim is to provide free access to top-tier AI learning tools for 58,000 students and 5,000 teachers by 2027, starting with 16- and 17-year-olds this September.

The rundown

In the most recent Pisa round, held in 2022 with results published a year later, Estonia came top in Europe for maths, science and creative thinking, and second to Ireland in reading. Formerly part of the Soviet Union, it now outperforms countries with far larger populations and bigger budgets.

What this doesn’t fix

Automated evidence review: this reading is limited to the cited source set and may change as contradicting evidence or broader outcome data enters the record.

Sources

The debate