By MyEngineers
The Norwegian government has rolled out fresh guidelines that will effectively bar pupils in elementary school from using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom, as authorities move to halt a worrying slide in pupils’ academic performance.
Announcing the new policy at a press briefing on Friday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said children between the ages of six and 13 — that is, pupils from primary one through to the equivalent of junior secondary one — would, as a general rule, be barred from using AI tools in their studies.
According to him, the priority for young learners must remain the basics.
“The most important thing in school is that our children learn to read, write and do mathematics,” the Prime Minister stated, noting that allowing AI too early risks pupils skipping foundational stages of learning altogether.
The new rules, which take effect from the beginning of the new academic session in late August, will however permit a more relaxed approach for older students. Pupils aged 14 to 16 in lower secondary school will be allowed “cautious” use of AI tools, but strictly under the supervision of their teachers. Senior secondary students, aged 17 to 19, will be encouraged to learn proper use of AI so they are well equipped for higher education and the world of work afterwards.
This latest restriction is coming barely two years after the Scandinavian country banned smartphones outright from its schools, a move that was accompanied by giving teachers more disciplinary powers to maintain order in classrooms — measures the government had hoped would reverse the decline in test scores recorded across the country’s education system.
Interestingly, the AI clampdown is not happening in isolation. In a related announcement on the same day, the Norwegian government disclosed plans to introduce legislation that will fund a return to physical textbooks in schools, effectively rolling back the country’s decades-long shift towards tablets and digital devices, a journey that started with computers in the 1990s and accelerated with the iPad era from 2010.
Authorities in the country had also in April this year announced intentions to bar children under the age of 16 from social media platforms entirely — joining Australia and a handful of other nations currently pushing back against young people’s growing dependence on digital gadgets and online platforms.
Observers say the twin moves — restricting AI in early education and reviving the use of textbooks — signal a deliberate policy direction by the Norwegian government: that in the rush to digitise education, something fundamental may have been lost, and it is time to return to basics before pupils are exposed to more advanced technology.