This autumn, pupils in the Finnish town of Riihimaki headed back to school with backpacks full of books after a decade of state-backed promotion of laptops and other digital devices in the classroom.

Finland's public education system has gained global renown for its good results in recent decades and its readiness to try new teaching techniques. Until recently, many schools gave laptops for free to all pupils from as early as age 11.

But Finnish parents and teachers, as elsewhere, have become increasingly concerned over the impact of screens on children.

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So Riihimaki, a town of some 30,000 inhabitants 70 km (44 mi) north of Helsinki which since 2018 had stopped using most books in middle schools, is trying something different for the start of this academic year: going back to pen and paper.

Maija Kaunonen, an English teacher at Pohjolanrinne middle school, said that although not opposed to digital materials, she was happy about the change back to books.

The constant distractions that come with the use of digital devices make many children restless and too flighty to focus.

Across Finland, children's learning results have been slowly eroding in recent years, prompting the government to plan new legislation to ban the use of personal devices, such as phones, during school hours to cut back on children's screen time.

Minna Peltopuro, a clinical neuropsychologist working with the town on the change, said the total screen time should be cut to a minimum - Finnish teenagers currently stare at screen for up to six hours per day on average - as excessive digital use comes with both physical and mental risks, such as eye problems and growing anxiety.

She said another issue was multi-tasking. "So brains are very vulnerable with multitasking and especially when you are this young age. So they cannot manage well.”