In just a few years, banning mobile phones in schools has moved from a handful of national initiatives to a widespread global policy trend. Governments increasingly see smartphones as a source of classroom distraction and a potential threat to students’ well-being. The response has been swift.

Recent global monitoring shows that 114 education systems now have a national ban on mobile phones in schools, representing 58% of countries worldwide. The expansion has been rapid. Less than 1 in 4 countries (24%) had bans in June 2023, when it was first monitored in the 2023 GEM Report. By early 2025 this had risen to 40%, and by March 2026 that share is almost 20 percentage point higher.

The growth reflects mounting concerns about declining attention in classrooms, cyberbullying, and the broader influence of digital environments on children. But the global picture is more nuanced than a simple shift toward prohibition.

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A blog last week showed that the share of countries with restrictions on the use of phones in schools has jumped from less than one in four to more than one in two in the space of two and a half years.  But does this matter for learning?

One widely cited study from England found that banning phones in secondary schools led to notably better exam scores, particularly for low-achieving students. Test results improved by 0.07 standard deviations, amounting to a 14% increase for the most disadvantaged learners. In the US state of Florida, enforcing phone bans in schools led to a short-term rise in student suspensions, notably among Black students, but disciplinary actions lessened after the first year. Test scores improved in the second year, and bans also reduced unexcused absences, likely contributing to academic gains. These effects were strongest in secondary schools with higher smartphone ownership.

In India, a randomized controlled study of nearly 17,000 students found that classroom phone bans led to higher grades, especially for lower-performing, first-year, and non-STEM students, with an average increase of about 0.09 standard deviations. Additionally, students exposed to the bans showed greater support for phone-use restrictions.

Several other studies also suggest gains in academic achievement including in Belgium, China, Ghana, the Republic of Korea and Türkiye among university and college students. In Spain, test scores improved markedly in the region of Galicia following restrictions, equivalent to up to a year of learning in mathematics and science.

Many other benefits emerge. A recent review concluded that while academic gains may vary, bans often improve classroom culture. Calmer environments, fewer distractions and lower levels of bullying and cyberbullying are consistently reported. In Ecuador, a national study of over 1,000 schools found that implementing differentiated restrictions reduced mobile-related discipline incidents by nearly 70%. In lower secondary classrooms, attention and academic outcomes improved, especially in schools with strong implementation and among lower income students.

In Australia, evidence from the states of New South Wales and South Australia shows similar findings: school leaders report improved learning, fewer social media conflicts and calmer school grounds. A natural experiment in South Australia also showed small but significant reductions in psychological distress and negative emotions. In Spain’s Murcia region serious school offences dropped by 31% post ban. A study in Portugal found declines in bullying and indiscipline, alongside increases in socialization and physical activity during breaks. Robust findings from a longitudinal study of 477 middle schools highlight that bans reduce bullying and psychological consultations, improve girls’ academic performance, and increase the likelihood of choosing academic secondary school tracks.

Even partial or time-limited bans can have measurable effects. In Denmark, locking phones away during recess for just four weeks increased physical activity for boys and girls and across age groups.

But it’s not all positive

Sceptics caution against a one-size-fits-all approach. As most measures have been in place for short periods, it is difficult to assess their long term and causal impact. Many studies explore correlations rather than causality. Some studies also warn of potential unintended consequences of banning phones in schools, including discipline disparities and overreach.

Evidence on phone bans is therefore promising but not uniform; implementation quality and contexts, for example, explain discrepancies across countries. In Florida, a survey of 1,500 students aged 11 to 13 found no effect on grades, bullying or mental health. Similar results have emerged in Sweden and England, where restrictive policies showed limited or no impact on educational outcomes or well-being.

A middle path seems to emerge considering solutions that balance students’ individual rights with their safety and well-being. When implemented with fairness, clarity and support, restrictions can help reduce distraction and improve classroom culture, especially for vulnerable students.

Bans alone also are not enough. They must be part of a broader digital strategy that includes digital literacy, inclusive pedagogy and family engagement.

Recent studies even suggest that reducing phone use may be more effective than total abstinence. In Germany, an experiment found that cutting use by one hour per day produced stronger, longer-lasting mental health benefits than banning phones entirely.

A revolution with conditions

Smartphones are not going away. But in more and more classrooms, they are finally being put in their place: stored away, turned off and used only when truly needed for learning. They are not ever-present distractions, but used as occasional tools, deliberately and under guidance. It is a subtle but powerful shift and one that many believe is long overdue.

The differing conclusions in studies about when and how phones impact on learning do not lead to the need for technology to be dismissed; rather, they call for introducing intentional ‘friction’ to foster greater focus. In some low- and middle-income countries, for instance, mobile phones are still the only digital tool many students and teachers can access. For them, a ban could widen the digital divide rather than close it.

Discussions about when and how to restrict phone use in schools must therefore be sensitive to context, ensuring that efforts to protect learning time do not inadvertently cut off access to learning altogether. Balancing structure with flexibility, especially in under-resourced environments, remains a key challenge in this growing global movement.

Read part 1: The ‘quiet’ revolution in schools: more and more countries are locking up phones

The post Are phone bans working? appeared first on World Education Blog.

A ‘quiet’ revolution is underway in schools around the world. While the debates over digital learning rage on, a growing number of governments and education systems have taken a bold stance: phones off, and out of sight. New GEM Report analysis in this blog shows that, while one in four countries had smartphone restrictions in schools in 2023, this number has surged. Today, more than half of countries have policies restricting phone use in schools.

The wave of change on smartphone use in schools reflects the increasing concerns of parents, teachers and policy makers  about the adverse effects of phones and social media on academic engagement and learning, social interactions, sleep, mental health, cognitive abilities privacy – to name but a few. The 2023 GEM Report’s gender edition argued that girls were twice as likely as boys to suffer from eating disorders exacerbated by social media usage. Facebook’s own research had revealed that 32% of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram. The report further noted alarming trends related to TikTok’s algorithm, which targets teenagers with body image content every 39 seconds and promotes content related to eating disorders every eight minutes.

Excessive screen and social media use not only affects individuals but also impacts the economy. Due to effects on workplace productivity,  individuals’ perceived well-being and mental health, the annual cost to the economy of the United States as a result of screen use was estimated at USD 73 billion.  Recent estimates suggest that the negative impact on children’s mental health and cognitive abilities currently costs 0.6% of GDP to France and could rise to 2.3% of GDP by 2060.

On the launch of the 2023 GEM Report on technology in education, the accompanying mapping of the PEER country profiles showed that 24% of countries had smartphone restrictions in schools. However, our latest monitoring results show that this number has surged, with 52% of countries now implementing policies to restrict phone use in schools, a significant increase.

Read part 2:  Are phone bans working?

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Language is an integral part of identity. Learning is enhanced when language identities are recognized. Simply put, students perform better when concepts are explained in terms of their personal context and experience. Although some teachers adapt and create materials for local contexts, this can take time and is not easily achievable with existing digital materials.  

Take the Pacific as an example, where nearly 25% of the approximately 6,000 distinct languages in the world are spoken. Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world, with over 800 indigenous languages spoken. Making education resources available in a context of such diversity, whether digital or not, is an insurmountable challenge.  

The prevalence of English-speaking materials threatens local languages and encourages students to master the global language rather than their own. The use of languages other than those spoken at home reflects how education is dominated by certain groups also through content creation. As early as 2005, online forums in Niue were mostly comprised of posts in English or using some English. In Samoa, where there is only one spoken indigenous language, most online content is in English. 

This leads to calls for open educational resources to be available in local languages. In Kiribati, the Ministry of Education, with support from UNICEF, developed high-quality video lessons and quizzes in English and Gilbertese, the local language. The resources are hosted on the Learning Passport platform and accessible to all. To promote the local language, Samoa also has a rich library of resources in Samoan accessible through the Samoan Digital Library.  

Cultural relevance is a cornerstone of sustainable education. Digitizing traditional knowledge, developing curricula in local languages, and aligning technology with Indigenous values are essential steps. In the Solomon Islands, culturally relevant educational resources have been created, digitized and published online for public access, for instance. Although only available in English, primary school-level supplementary reading materials also feature local stories such as ‘Under the Ngali Nut Tree’ and ‘Mautikitiki and the Giant Coconut Crab’. 

When done right, rather than digitization threatening local languages and cultures, it is possible for it to be used to preserve and promote them. The preservation of Tokelau’s language and culture is the first priority highlighted in the 2020–2025 Tokelau Education Strategic Plan, for example. It seeks to increase culturally appropriate print and digital resources for language and content learning, including Tokelau language e-books at various levels with embedded audio for online literacy-focused learning. Additionally, the plan calls for the creation of a Tokelau language website with publicly available resources.  

One illustrative example of what cultural relevance can look like in the digitalization of society is in the form of story telling. Catalpa, an organisation that works with indigenous practices of telling stories and interacting in talanoa, a word derived from Fijian and Samoan languages meaning ‘talk’, in order to bring together teams to share knowledge and discuss ways teachers could be supported. Co-developed with 8 Pacific science fellows appointed by education ministries, Catalpa’s Pacific eLearning Programme provides 100 science activities, 34 job-embedded professional development activities and 22 micro-courses for teachers in the Cook Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Contextualized and relevant content was produced for science teachers, including lessons on mangroves, ocean and land, reef ecosystems, how canoes float, and the theory behind the fermentation of some local foods. 

Similar ideas have been used in Australia to facilitate culturally relevant storytelling, promote engagement and improve learning for students from Aboriginal communities. Multimedia platforms, such as Digital Creative Storytelling, document Indigenous stories in collaboration with elders from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Culturally responsive digital games have increased the engagement and motivation of primary school students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. 

Similar examples and efforts are also found in other corners in the world, from special radio strategies for indigenous students in Mexico, to a large multilingual story platform in India with over 323 languages .  As the pace of digital transformation increases, this nexus of culture and education is particularly important. From language to content and now to the shape of artificial intelligence algorithms, there are multiple different hot spots requiring attention to ensure that the use of technology in education is appropriate.  

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‘Everyone’s talking about which AI tool to use, but nobody’s talking about why we’re using them in the first place’, observed a secondary school teacher in the United States. This sums up the current state of AI in education: a whirlwind of excitement and experimentation, often overshadowing critical reflection on its actual value and the likely consequences.

AI has a special allure for many education experts who believe in its potential to revolutionize teaching methodologies, personalize learning experiences and streamline administrative tasks. But while the potential benefits of AI in education remain largely unknown, the risks of using classrooms as a testing ground for these technologies are undeniable. 

One risk is in the form of the commercialization of education. We are constantly reminded how the global market for AI in education will surge in the coming years, although it is important to remember that exaggerated claims about technology tend to go hand in hand with exaggerated estimates of its future global market size. We would be fooling ourselves if we thought AI companies are more concerned with educational outcomes than their bottom line. Meanwhile, with a few exceptions, consumer protection laws are still fragmented and opaque. 

As we are beginning to realize, control of AI has also become a larger issue beyond consumption of goods, touching upon consumption of votes, with fact-checking on popular social media abandoned and users left to their own ‘devices’ in their search for reliable information. This quote by philosopher Hannah Arendt is a reminder: 

“A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.” 

Eight years on from the creation of the term ‘fake news’, there is a question about how we want to ensure that learning spaces are protected from this trend: can critical thinking and open debate be fostered in the face of strong outside influence? Our responsibility, as we reflect on education in this context, is to ensure our focus remains on students and their learning experience.  

Certainly, there are pockets of benefits for some learners, particularly for breaking down language barriers, and for assisting learners with a disability. However, a blanket acceptance of AI into education risks backfiring. Our other blog this week, which provided an update about bans on smartphones in school, reminded us that the algorithms in these phones end up making many school environments less safe.  

The ability of AI to cut corners for learners in accessing content and formulating arguments also requires thought. This has great benefits on the one hand. But we do not always stand to gain from cutting corners where learning is concerned. As students, we did not write particularly great essays, if we are honest about it, but it was the process of writing them that was important – a part we should be careful to protect. 

The ship has pretty much set sail  

Perhaps it is too late to talk of putting the brakes on. Many countries have been embracing AI for some time. In the United Kingdom, between April and November 2023, the share of primary and secondary school teachers who used generative AI to aid with their schoolwork from 17% to 42%. This month, the government of the United Kingdom announced, as part of its AI strategy, its intention to support universities to develop new AI courses co-designed with the AI industry to ‘train the tens of thousands of AI professionals needed by 2030‘. It has also supported AI tools to help teachers with feedback and marking. 

China laid out goals in July 2024 to build a domestic AI industry worth nearly $150 billion and to make the country an AI ‘innovation centre’ by 2030. It has invested heavily in an adaptive tutoring platform, Squirrel AI, which uses large-scale data sets and camera surveillance to improve standardized test performance. In Finland, about half of schools use the ViLLE platform for immediate feedback and analytics on student assignments. In the Punjab province of India, IRIS, an AI-powered teacher, is now offered. The Republic of Korea has decided to take the plunge towards AI textbooks from this March. In the United Arab Emirates, an AI tutor tailors lessons to individual students’ needs, offering real-time analytics. Uruguay has been integrating AI into classrooms since 2017 through Ceibal, its national agency for innovation through technology. Teachers were even swapped with AI tutors in one school programme in Arizona. 

At the higher education level, several universities in Latin America are expanding their AI courses. Colombia has 18 graduate-level academic programmes and one undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, while Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru have also expanded their academic programmes.  

Countries are not blind to the risks, however, and many are proactively addressing some of the potential challenges. Ireland, for example, is producing guidance on the use of AI in teaching and learning, and France is addressing the public policy ethical considerations and challenges for of the use of AI in education. The African Union has a continental AI strategy laying out a blueprint for how African nations should approach the governance and oversight of AI. But education technology products are already changing faster than anyone could evaluate them. Is it any surprise many countries are struggling to keep pace? 

Why the rush? 

However difficult it is to do so, it is important to take the time to reflect on the key questions, which the 2023 GEM Report raised and which apply for all forms of technology, AI included. Is it appropriate, i.e. what evidence do we have that it improves learning and what type of learning? Is it equitable? Is it scalable? And is it sustainable?  

Ultimately, what problem are we trying to fix in our education systems? We can no longer turn our eyes away from the fact that adolescents’ reading proficiency levels in middle- and high-income countries have declined dramatically in the last 10 years. This is precisely the period during which digital technology and its consequences have taken young people’s daily lives by storm.  

As Virgil’s Aeneid goes ‘Either there are Greeks in hiding, concealed by the wood, or it’s been built as a machine to use against our walls, or spy on our homes, or fall on the city from above, or it hides some other trick: Trojans, don’t trust this horse.’ 

Without better evidence on whether AI makes educational sense or not, the only approach we can take must be with caution.  

In 2024, global debates erupted about regulations of smartphones in school, an initiative that could limit the pervasiveness of AI in classrooms. On this International Day of Education, we encourage countries to make 2025 the year when they take a stand on their broader position to ensure that AI in education remains on our terms. 

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By the end of 2023, 60 education systems (or 30%) had bans on smartphone use in schools in their laws or policies. By the end of 2024, an update that the GEM Report has prepared for the International Day of Education finds that 19 more education systems were banning the use of smartphones in school, bringing the total to 79 (or 40%). These regulations are described in the GEM Report’s Profiles Enhancing Education Reviews (PEER) website, which monitors the laws and policies on technology in education around the world. 

Percentage of education systems with laws and policies banning smartphone use in school, by SDG region, end of 2024 

Source: GEM Report PEER profiles, www.education-profiles.org 

In some cases, some bans have become more stringent in the last year. In China, the city of Zhengzhou further restricted the use of phones in primary and secondary schools, demanding that parents provide written consent that a phone was really needed for pedagogical reasons. In France, a ‘digital break‘ was suggested in lower secondary schools as an add-on to the already existing phone ban at other education levels. At the opposite end, Saudi Arabia reversed its ban due to the opposition by disability groups for medical purposes. 

This mapping did not include all sub-national jurisdictions in federal countries, although four were assessed in detail. For example, In Australia, two of the nine territories (New South Wales and South Australia) have introduced bans, while in Spain, all but 3 of the 17 autonomous communities (Basque Country, La Rioja, Navarre) have introduced bans. in the United States, 20 out of its 50 states have regulations now in place, from the Phone-Free School Act in California to the phone ban for K-12 classrooms in Florida, the ban on students using portable wireless device in Indiana and another ban in Ohio.   

In some of these new regulations in the United States, however, one approach is to issue guidelines, but leave it to schools to define the precise policies on usage in class. In Indiana, for example, school boards have to draft and publicly post specific policies for their schools saying whether students can access their phones during lunch and what consequences the students may face for using prohibited devices. In addition, sometimes there are exceptions, such as for learners who require learning accommodations in the Louisiana ban, and for anyone with a health condition that requires monitoring in Ohio.   

State education systems with laws and policies banning smartphone use in school in the United States, end of 2024 

Outside of full bans, some countries have also, or instead, banned the use of specific applications from education settings because of privacy concerns. Denmark and France have both banned Google Workspace, while some states in Germany have banned Microsoft products.  

Bans also vary by education level. Most countries focus on primary schools, and some, such as Israel, on kindergartens. Others, such as Turkmenistan, have extended the ban to secondary school.  

Brain rot?  

Among the new words added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2024 were ‘doomscrolling’ and ‘brain-rot’. Both are symbols of the omnipresence of unhealthy social media usage driven by artificial intelligence algorithms. The 2023 GEM Report showed that some technology can support some learning in some contexts, but not when it is overused or inappropriately used. Having a smartphone in class can disrupt learning. One study which looked at pre-primary through to higher education in 14 countries found that it distracted students from learning. Even just having a mobile phone nearby with notifications coming through is enough to result in students losing their attention from the task at hand.  Another study found that it can take students up to 20 minutes to refocus on what they were learning once distracted.  Removing smartphones from schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom was found to improve learning outcomes, according to a study cited in the report, especially for students that were not performing as well as their peers. 

Risks to children’s privacy and well-being 

In addition to the impact on learning, there are also privacy concerns when specific applications collect user data unnecessary for these applications to work. As of 2023, only 16% of countries explicitly guaranteed data privacy in education by law, however. One analysis found that 89% of 163 education technology products recommended during the pandemic could survey children. Further, 39 of 42 governments providing online education during the pandemic fostered uses that risked or infringed on children’s rights.  

The 2024 Gender version of our report, Technology on her terms, also laid out the way that technology in practice often exacerbates negative gender norms or stereotypes. Social media use in particular impacts girls’ well-being and self-esteem. The ease with which cyberbullying can be magnified through the use of online devices in the school environment is a cause of concern, as is the biased design of artificial intelligence algorithms.  

The GEM Report calls for decisions about technology in education to prioritize the needs of the learner, making sure that any uses of technology are appropriate, equitable, scalable and sustainable. 

Students need to learn the risks and opportunities that come with technology and not be shielded from them entirely.  But countries need to give better guidance on what technology is allowed in school and what is not, and on its responsible use. Only technology that has a clear role in supporting learning should be allowed in school.  

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What are AI textbooks?

AI-powered textbooks use advanced generative AI algorithms to create customized content, adjusting the pace and difficulty of the material as required. They gather real-time data, allowing for continuous feedback and for teachers to tailor their instruction accordingly.  

Promoted at the UNESCO International Forum on the Futures of Education that took place in early December 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-Ho said, “The new digital textbooks are designed to support personalized learning by tailoring content to each student’s level and pace. Teachers will also have access to data-driven insights, enabling more customized educational plans”.

Almost USD 70 million are being injected into improving digital infrastructure and developing digital textbooks in the country, inspecting and improving the connectivity of schools, providing 1,200 digital tutors to support the change, and testing technical support centres for teachers.  

Some of the good reasons for the change were outlined in the Ministry’s press release announcing the initiative, which emphasized the benefits from the implementation of AI digital textbooks: customized learning content tailored to individual student data, enhancing personalized learning experience; and features such as screen captions, subtitles, and multi-linguistic translations, catering to the needs of students and teachers in special education, as well as those with multicultural backgrounds.

The aim was to reshape the way that students learn, which still places strong emphasis on memorizing textbooks. With more personalized learning experiences, the ministry was also keen to help bridge achievement gaps in classrooms between children who are throwing themselves into out-of-school private tutoring centres, and those not. It was keen to help Korean students acquire new AI and digital literacy skills, keeping education relevant and sustainable. 

This initiative goes a little against the grain of hesitant views about the place that AI should have in education, however. Since ChatGPT began, there has been a scramble to work out how to incorporate AI into education. Pearson, for instance, jumped straight into creating digital textbooks, which are now already used by 70,000 students in over 1,000 institutions. But many are calling for the brakes to be put on, highlighting the risks of digital dependence, that affect privacy, security and wellbeing, as also outlined in the 2023 GEM Report on technology in education.

These risks, and particularly those related to introducing technology without proper time to induct teachers into the change, led to a request from the National Council of Governors of Education to slow the pace of the initiative, including delaying the introduction of AI textbooks for certain subjects. Concerns were also raised by the Nationwide Superintendents’ Association.  

Moving to AI textbooks requires teachers to become facilitators of learning, more than having to impart learning themselves. It also requires teachers to have a strong level of digital skills themselves.

As a result of this feedback, a decision was taken to hold back digital textbooks in Korean and home economics, while the rollout for social studies and science will be delayed until 2027. The Ministry has announced it aims to train all teachers in the effective use of digital technology for classroom innovation by 2025 and is allocating $760 million to the effort over three years, something the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations has welcomed as a ‘balanced approach’. Risks related to privacy and security of children’s data are covered in AI Digital Textbook Development Guidelines aligned with Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act.

One surprising change is a recent legislative change by the National Assembly, which reclassified AI digital textbooks as supplementary rather than core educational materials. This means that the new textbooks would not be mandatory but would be used only at the discretion of school principals.

“If the bill is applied, it will cause significant confusion in schools that have been preparing to implement these resources,” the minister said.

Navigating the digital transformation in schools, with quick shifts to new technologies that can overhaul teaching methods, required training, budgetary forecasts, and communication campaigns with parents and school communities is not easy for school leaders. Clear rules are needed for school leaders to be able to implement large-scale digital reforms such as these. A regional edition of the 2024/5 GEM Report on leadership will look at digital transformation and education leadership in East Asia, including in the Republic of Korea, for release in June, 2025.

No one wants to be the guinea pig, especially where their education is concerned. It will be of immense interest, therefore, for the rest of the world watch how this bold change unfolds. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation are essential to make sure that the continuation of the initiative – and any other countries’  decisions to follow suite – is based upon strong evidence to show that it is improving children’s learning, and their learning experience. 

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SDG thematic indicator 4.a.2 measures the percentage of students who experienced bullying in the past 12 months. The latest addition to the UIS database comes from the 2022 round of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which measures several types of bullying behaviour among 15-year-olds. The most common behaviour is verbal and relational where students reported ‘Other students made fun of me’ and ‘Other students spread nasty rumours about me’.  

In most participating countries, the prevalence of bullying is higher for students that are from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background, are immigrant and male. But across countries that took part in the 2018 and 2022 PISA, bullying has been increasing faster for girls than for boys. In 34 of the 66 countries with available data, bullying increased by at least 2 percentage points for girls between 2018 and 2022. The same was true for boys in only 22 countries. In the 10 countries where bullying increased the most between 2018 and 2022, the increase for girls was considerably higher than for boys. In Türkiye, the share of 15-year-old girls who experienced bullying increased by 18 percentage points, compared to an increase of 7 percentage points for boys.  

Why has bullying increased more for girls?

The faster increase in the prevalence of bullying for girls aligns with their higher vulnerability to cyberbullying, which is partly because, as the 2024 Gender Report on technology in education: Technology on her terms showed,  girls often spend more time on social media than boys. A cross-country study of 31 high- and 11 low- and middle-income countries found that the relationship between intense social media use and being a victim of cyberbullying was more common for girls than for boys, at least partly due to the greater amount of time they spend online. In the United Kingdom, girls were more likely to report spending time on social media from the age of 10 and, at age 15, 43% of girls vs 31% of boys reported spending one to three hours a day on social media.  

Girls are also more often targeted by specific types of cyberbullying. Algorithm-driven image-based content, in particular, can expose girls to inappropriate material, ranging from sexual content to videos that glorify unhealthy behaviours or unrealistic body standards.  

What can be done to address bullying? 

Cyberbullying takes various forms, such as the deliberate publication of photos or videos of individuals without their consent, exclusion from digital groups, verbal violence and insults and threats. Many countries’ policies on technology in education are responding with awareness-raising, reporting mechanisms and digital risk interventions, usually at the school level. A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions in selected, mostly high-income countries estimated that the average programme has a 73% chance of reducing cyberbullying victimization.  

Cyberbullying can be fuelled by a lack of proper policies and a lack of regulations over smartphone use. Concerns over privacy and student wellbeing have prompted parents, teachers and government officials to advocate for stricter regulations on technology use among children. The 2023 GEM Report showed that over one third of countries have banned smartphone use in schools, with Sweden, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (Brazil), Quebec (Canada), Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (India) and Aceh Province (Indonesia) amongst others, restricting their use in schools since the report was launched in July 2023.  

Banning smartphones from classrooms may protect children from the risks of being online but is not a magical solution. As the prevalence of bullying continues to rise, countries need to take stronger measures to protect children from the risks of being online. The GEM Report’s PEER country profiles show that only 16% of countries had legislation in place to prevent and act on cyberbullying in school; of those, 38% did so since the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Earlier this month, representatives from governments, international organizations, the civil society, experts and youth representatives gathered in Bogota for the first Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children. Convened by the Government of Colombia with the support of the Government of Sweden, UNICEF, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children and the World Health Organization, the Conference provided a pivotal moment to drive policy change and resources to demonstrate that violence prevention is possible. The discussions focused on preventing different types of violence, including cyberbullying. Protecting children from the threats of being online and ensuring safe digital futures for children and youth were one of the key priorities.  

Schools and online learning spaces should provide safe and supportive environments for all, including girls and women. As we continue to celebrate these key international days, robust evidence is needed more than ever, as it can help us shed light on the challenges, drive policy and demonstrate that change is possible.  

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The Pacific is home to 45.5 million people spread across 30 million square kilometers, making it a unique geographic and cultural region, especially in terms of the application of technology in education. On the one hand, its geographic dispersion means that communication links are extremely important, but challenges due to natural disasters, costly infrastructure and linguistic diversity mean that the use of technology in the region requires great attention in terms of sustainability and relevance. 

This message emerges from the new 2024 GEM Report on technology in education in the Pacific, developed in partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and being launched in Samoa today during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2024).  

The report covers 17 countries and territories, Australia, Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Tokelau and Vanuatu. Extensive background research by local research teams and independent experts informs the regional analysis, including contributions from Catalpa International and the Australian Council for Educational Research. It is structured around the four key policy areas of the Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) (2018–2030): quality and relevance; learning pathways; student outcomes and wellbeing; and the teaching profession. It concludes with a series of recommendations, aligned to those of the 2023 GEM Report but adapted to the Pacific’s context. It is a unique tool for policymakers from the Pacific who are working to improve learning using technology. 

Technology can overcome geographic dispersion, but access to infrastructure and devices needs to be improved first 

Much attention has been paid to improve access to electricity in the region to bring the benefits from technology to the Pacific. New submarine cables and lower telecommunications costs have also seen a fast increase in internet access between 2003 and 2021 from 7% to 88% in Fiji and from 3% to 71% in Tonga, for instance.  

Not all countries have moved at the same rate. Only around one third of adults in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and 40% in the Federated States of Micronesia used the internet in 2021. Natural disasters, such as those caused by cyclones and volcanic eruptions, have damaged infrastructure. 

The schooling system needs to offer flexible learning strategies, for which technology can help, a fact that countries have long recognized. But the short- and long-term costs of adapting to the use of digital technology are often not adequately estimated. In Papua New Guinea, a shift to tablets was impeded by high costs and eventually converted to a hybrid approach. The University of the South Pacific, meanwhile, started distributing tablets in 2013 with high student satisfaction, but 72% still reported financial constraints related to maintenance and access to applications. The ongoing maintenance needs are also cited as a concern.  

While access to digital technology has improved, major inequalities within and between countries persist in terms of those able to learn with technology. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the percentage of secondary schools in Pacific Island states that had computers for pedagogical purposes in 2019–23 ranged from a low of 32% in the Marshall Islands to 100% in the Cook Islands, Niue and Palau.  

Many therefore continue to miss out of the potential of technology in education as a result: 77% of primary school teachers in 15 Pacific countries do not have devices to support their teaching. As natural disasters become more frequent in the region, the urgency behind making sure that distance learning projects and investments are scalable and sustainable is only becoming more acute. 

Appropriate and inclusive technology choices are needed in the region 

The PacREF emphasizes curricula and programmes that reflect Pacific values and traditional knowledge. It draws attention to appropriate, inclusive (in terms of culture, language and identity), rights-based, gender-equitable, flexible, innovative and adaptable pedagogy; and quality learning environments, which are also defined in terms of new technologies.  

The new regional report emphasizes the importance of this point for the use of technology in education. The right level of technology, fitted to local needs (which does not need to be too advanced!) can have a positive impact on outcomes. A project in Papua New Guinea based on daily text messages improved primary school children’s learning, for instance. 

This point is not always heard though. Many online resources remain only in English, for example, in this multilingual region. In addition, devices are sometimes provided without thought to contextualization. The One Laptop Per Child project was piloted in at least eight Pacific countries, for example, but was discontinued in most because the content was not contextualized, while electricity, WiFi access and support were lacking. However, Vanuatu managed to build on the project to transition to a nationally owned and sustainable e-learning project. 

Similarly, the Samoa SchoolNet initiative provided e-learning resources, equipment, and training but faced challenges with teacher adoption and sustainability. In Palau, Japan’s provision of tablets for mathematics education was hindered by insufficient classroom equipment.  

For technology to be appropriate, teachers must know how to use it, a point also reflected in the PacREF. This has seen initiatives such as the Pacific Partnership for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning project to ensure teachers can deliver. The task at hand is large, however. In the Solomon Islands, teachers reported difficulties with charging laptops and other technical issues. 

A relevant tool for policymakers who are working to improve learning using technology 

By aligning the report to the four key policy areas of the Pacific Regional Education Framework (PacREF) the report aims to become a valuable tool for those working to improve learning in the Pacific using technology in education.  

1. Quality and relevance: Mobile technology has offered an affordable and flexible approach to learning, and social media has improved communication between institutions, parents and learners. But technology must be designed to respect the needs of a diverse population.  
2. Learning pathways: Open and distance learning has historically expanded learning for geographically isolated students, especially in higher education and as a response to natural hazards. But, even if the Pacific is a champion, the promise of open education resources and of the internet as gateways to education content is frequently compromised. 
3. Student outcomes and well-being: Multiple efforts have been made to incorporate digital skills into curricula and into informal education. Yet regulations must address threats from the use of technology to privacy, safety and well-being.  
4. Teaching profession: Countries are leveraging technology to provide training opportunities and transform the teaching profession. However, training for teachers needs to be improved across the region and greater attention is needed to digital infrastructure in schools for technology to be effectively integrated into pedagogy.  

As heads of state and leaders from the region gather in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, where the report is being launched, the findings of this report will inform the debate on how governments’ governance and regulation efforts can be supported to ensure equitable access to appropriate technology through scalable and sustainable solutions.

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Smartphones are not the only issue. Negative effects are also reported in students of the use of personal computers for non-academic activities during class, such as internet browsing, and amongst their peers who are in view of the screen.   

As part of the background research for the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report, 211 education systems’ normative and policy frameworks on technology in education were mapped in the PEER country profiles. The analysis showed that 24% of countries had implemented cellphone bans through a law or policy at the time of the report’s launch in July 2023. More than one year later, the GEM Report has updated the analysis and found that the number has risen to 31%, while several countries are still discussing possible bans at national level.

To ban or not to ban: What does the evidence say?

The basic premise of the 2023 GEM Report was that technology should be utilized in schools only when it enhances learning. The same applies for smartphones in classrooms. The report shows that some technology can support some learning in some contexts, but not when it is over-used or inappropriately used. One study looking at pre-primary through to higher education in 14 countries found that it distracted students from learning. Removing smartphones from schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom was found to improve learning outcomes, according to a study cited in the report, especially for students that were not performing as well as their peers.

Concerns over privacy and student wellbeing have prompted parents, teachers, and government officials to advocate for stricter regulations on technology use among children. The GEM Report’s gender edition highlighted how social media can negatively affect mental health while reinforcing harmful gender norms. It found that girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from eating disorders exacerbated by social media usage. Facebook’s own research revealed that 32% of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram. The report further noted alarming trends related to TikTok’s algorithm, which targets teenagers with body image content every 39 seconds and promotes content related to eating disorders every eight minutes. In response to these findings, many universities in the United States have explicitly banned TikTok from their campuses.

The impact of social media on emotional wellbeing is particularly pronounced among girls. Increased interaction with social media at age 10 has been linked to worsening socioemotional difficulties as they grow older—a trend not observed among boys. Emotional wellbeing is crucial for academic success; a longitudinal study from England found that children with better emotional health made more progress in primary school and were more engaged during secondary education.

Countries are taking different approaches to this issue

The approach to cellphone bans varies widely from one country to another. In France, for instance, cellphones are completely banned in schools due to their potential to distract students, with exceptions made for individuals with disabilities. Bangladesh teachers and students have been banned from bringing mobile phones in classrooms, while Uzbekistan mandates that students turn off their devices before lessons commence and are only allowed to use their phones to communicate with parents or legal guardians in cases of justified and urgent need. In Scotland (United Kingdom) and the Netherlands, cellphone use is restricted to educational purposes only. In November 2023, the Dutch government announced plans to extend the ban on mobile phones in classrooms to include primary and special schools, with exceptions being made for medical needs or educational purposes.

Spain recently took significant steps by unanimously approving a recommendation to ban cellphones in primary schools and limit their use in secondary schools to strictly pedagogical or medical needs. Following this, the Spanish Data Protection Agency issued an alert advising against personal mobile and tablet use for educational purposes. Sweden has implemented a ban on cellphones for students in grades 1-9 during school hours, including breaks. This initiative aims to reduce distractions and foster better learning. The schools minister also announced that digital devices would be replaced with printed books. In England (United Kingdom), after a parliamentary inquiry, to which to the GEM Report also contributed, the Department of Education issued guidance encouraging headteachers to prohibit cellphone use throughout the school day as part of a broader effort to enhance student engagement. The guidance draws attention to the negative effects of phones on classroom behavior and cyber-bullying and recommends phone collection before lessons or secure storage.

Partial or total restrictions on cellphone use can also be found in Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Portugal, Switzerland, and Türkiye. These regulations are often accompanied by guidelines on screen time and policies aimed at limiting social media use within educational settings. 

Overall, the new analysis from the GEM Report team found that more than 60 countries now ban smartphones in classrooms by law or policy. Algeria, Cambodia, Chile, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Niue and the Russian Federation are some of the countries to have introduced bans. Bans are also introduced in federal countries. In the United States there is a growing number of states banning phones in schools. The same applies for Brazil, Canada and India. In 16 countries, discussions to introduce bans are underway.

The analysis also found that some countries are discussing modifying or extending existing bans as in France where trial digital breaks (expérimentation de la pause numérique) in some secondary schools.

The relentless pace of technological development has led to renewed hesitation about the use of devices in classrooms, both from a learning, and from a health perspective. The calls are not only coming from policy makers, but also from teachers, parents and youth themselves.  Students and youth joined a global consultation and voiced their opinions on the issue in the 2024 GEM Youth Report calling for technology to be on their terms and their terms only.

What do you think? Share your views in the comment section of this blog.

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How big is the shortfall?

Note: Norway is for grade 9
Source: 2019 TIMSS

In the United States, there were over 30,000 vacancies for physics teachers in 2019 but only some 6,000 physics majors. In England, United Kingdom, entry into initial teacher training is only 17% of the target number for physics and 30% for computing. 

One internationally comparable source of school-level data on STEM teacher shortages is the principals’ questionnaire of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).  The data from this study is shown in the figure here to the right. It shows that, in some middle-income countries, such as Malaysia or Türkiye, more than 80% of secondary schools face a shortage of adequate mathematics and science teachers. On average, close to 30% of schools across participating countries face such a shortage.

How high are the attrition rates?

Turnover rates in STEM are consistently the highest, including compared to other shortage subjects such as special education or English as a second language. In rural areas, STEM teachers rarely stay in a teaching position for more than five years.

The shortage of STEM teachers is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa. Only around 30% of the region’s short-cycle tertiary enrolment is in STEM subjects (25% of female and 34% of male enrolments). According to an estimate produced for the 2023 GEM Report, sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where its small number of STEM graduates is insufficient to provide an adequate number of STEM teachers to meet SDG 4 needs by 2030, even if every single STEM graduate could be recruited into teaching.

One contributing factor to the shortfall is that STEM graduates often enjoy many alternatives to teaching.  With increasing digitalization the world over, many may be tempted to go straight into ICT-related jobs. The shortfall by 2030 of people who can work in computing and mathematics is estimated to be as high as 6 million workers in the United States and around 1 million in Germany. It does not help that the average pay gap between teaching and non-teaching careers is higher for mathematics and science graduates than for other subjects, and STEM students may further overestimate this gap and the financial disadvantage of becoming teachers.

Various policies have been implemented to encourage the recruitment, training and retention of STEM teachers. 

For starters, money talks.  Recruitment incentives sometimes include significant bonuses for signing on teachers in shortage subjects. In England, a target 8% gross salary supplement for early-career mathematics and physics teachers made them 23% less likely to leave their teaching post in public education, mirroring similar results in the United States. Retaining an additional teacher via the incentive resulted in a 32% lower cost than training a replacement.  

Another approach is to target graduates or professionals who currently have a non-teaching career. In the German states of Berlin and Saxony, those having gone through alternative certification schemes already make up half of all newly recruited teachers, and the same is true of STEM teachers in the US state of Texas.

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, a non-governmental network of centres of excellence in post-graduate training in Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa, established the five-year STEM-focused Teacher Training Program to provide not only professional development but also classroom resources. Both the centres in Ghana and South Africa use blended combinations of in-person and online training to improve teachers’ subject knowledge and teaching skills, especially those serving disadvantaged populations. In Cameroon, the training model includes building the capacity of ‘master trainers’ at teacher training institutions and raising awareness among principals regarding the importance of providing support to mathematics teachers. In Rwanda, VVOB, a non-governmental organization, similarly focuses on training STEM mentors and subject leaders and establishing communities of practice among them.

Enabling teachers already in the system to teach STEM subjects can be an effective way to increase coverage. 

One option is to train interdisciplinary STEM teachers already at the initial teacher training stage. However, qualifying teachers across subjects can be challenging. In 2018 in Thailand, under the Teacher Development Coupon scheme for in-service teacher training for 270,000 teachers, only 0.5% of the coupons were for STEM-related courses.

Where there is scarcity, there is inequity.  

The shortage of STEM teachers brings heightened challenges of diversity and equitable provision. In the US state of California, for example, three quarters of secondary STEM students are non-white, but only one quarter of secondary STEM classes are taught by a non-white teacher.

And STEM teachers are not distributed equally across schools. STEM teachers are missing from schools that are already disadvantaged, further aggravating inequality. In the United States, asymmetric teacher mobility between schools results in a significant share of mathematics and science teachers shifting from poor to better-off schools, from schools with more minority students to schools with fewer, and from urban to suburban schools.

Shining a light on STEM in particular demonstrates the fact that focusing only on overall attrition rates or teacher shortages may not be sufficient. Specific subjects may have disproportionate shortfalls, requiring attention to the root causes for the gaps and targeted policy responses to address them.

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School identification is universal (e.g. 93% of countries outside Western Europe and North America have school identification numbers in secondary education), although coverage is somewhat more limited for early childhood education and for technical and vocational education centres (72% of countries each).

But the 2023 GEM Report reported UIS data showing that only 54% of countries – and as few as 22% of sub-Saharan African countries – have put in place unique student identification mechanisms, although 34% of countries – and 53% of sub-Saharan African countries – had plans or were in the process of introducing student identification numbers in the future.

The accompanying regional report for Southeast Asia released alongside the global 2023 GEM Report looked at the different ways this is being rolled out in the region. In Cambodia in 2020, a student tracking system was piloted in Pouk district, Siem Reap province, with the support of UNESCO, for instance. The Philippines also introduced unique student identification and a process of third-party verification, which has reduced data manipulation and misreporting. Each student, including those enrolled in the Alternative Learning System, is provided with a 12-digit identifier that tracks information throughout the education system. Based on the aggregated data, the system generates reports for teachers and the Department of Education.

Viet Nam meanwhile integrated student identification into the national education management information system in 2017. All students are assigned an identification code that enables their learning progress to be monitored throughout the school year.

The Southeast Asia report found that student identifiers can also be issued and managed outside the Ministry of Education and be associated with a national identification system. In Malaysia, the National Registration Department’s MyIdentity system was integrated with the Student Information System that tracks school attendance electronically. In Singapore, the national identification is also used as a student identifier.

In Africa, school ID numbers are often not unique.  

In Africa, meanwhile, the global 2023 report showed that, even though several countries claim to have school identification numbers, they are often not unique and can vary between databases, such as between examination result records and the school census, compromising links and preventing optimal use.

With support from UNICEF, education ministries in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Zambia devised an interim solution to match their school records. A text similarity algorithm matched schools between databases using the degree of likeness between text associated with each school, such as its name or location. The process allowed 86% of schools in Côte d’Ivoire and at least 87% of schools in Zambia to be identified, helping analyse their performance between 2015 and 2020.

In South Africa, the Learner Unit Record Tracking System has been in place since 2010 and covers all public schools. All learners are uniquely identified with a number, and their individual data are recorded until grade 12, including when they move between schools and provinces. Since its introduction, the system has permitted more advanced and robust analyses of repetition and dropout patterns, learner trajectories and teacher demand and supply. However, the system still appears to sometimes assign a second identification number to students who transfer to a new school.

In Ethiopia, the implementation of a digital identification system for five million secondary school students is based on blockchain technology. The system is a pilot for Ethiopia to build a national digital identification system. It uses Cardano, a public blockchain platform, as the foundation, but the platform is vulnerable to major risks, from network failures to privacy breaches.

For other countries, student identification is relatively recent.  

Albania, for example, is developing Socrates, an education management information system that will introduce unique identifiers through which students will be monitored from their entry into the formal school system until the end of upper secondary. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the West Herzegovina Canton is developing a new system to support planning in which student and teacher identification numbers will be introduced and linked to their respective administrative identification numbers. Serbia’s 2017 Act on the Foundations of the Education System envisaged the same action. 

Student identification systems should be developed carefully to avoid exclusion.  

Digital national identification systems are key for accelerating progress to universal legal identification by 2030: currently, it is estimated that 850 million, mostly marginalized, people do not have legal proof of identification. Access to education, healthcare or social welfare may be conditional on having national identification. Yet digital identification processes have been shown to exclude populations from access to such services.

In India, the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that its national digital identity card, could not be made mandatory: not only should alternative means of identity verification be made available but children should be exempt. However, the ID card continues to be routinely demanded from children for enrolling in anganwadis and schools.

Refugee populations can be made vulnerable because of digital identification. In Kenya, members of the Somali minority have faced vetting and delays while applying for identification.  The UNCHR has also shared biometric, personal information data of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with the Bangladeshi government, which were then shared with the Myanmar government. To protect marginalized communities, the collection of biometric and other personal data needs to be accompanied by informed consent on their use.

The example of student identification systems shows how technology can improve education system management. It provides the possibility of expanding the range of data collected on schools and students and linking them to generate fine-grained analyses of learning trajectories and the factors that determine them. Such data can be used to personalize learning, track marginalized children and prevent disengagement and early school leaving. 

However, with that potential comes challenges, which are further covered in the 2023 GEM Report. Some question whether the amount of data generated can be used effectively, not just to monitor but to improve individual and institutional performance. Policymakers and school leaders are overwhelmed with the amount of information and with the range of purported solutions to combine data, which often do not speak to each other. The rollout of many technology projects is fraught with high costs, privacy and security concerns, implementation challenges and weak capacity. Understanding all aspects of a digital ecosystem is critical for countries that want to leverage technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their education system management. Users need to be put at the centre, improving their attitudes towards the technology they are expected to adopt, and strengthening their capacity to use it.

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