While many countries, including England, enforce smartphone bans in schools to protect students’ focus and mental well-being, Estonia is charting a radically different course. The Baltic nation, home to just 1.4 million people, is leveraging AI in Schools technology in classrooms, not restricting it. From September 2025, Estonian students will receive personal AI accounts as part of a bold new initiative known as AI Leap. This program aims to equip both students and teachers with advanced artificial intelligence tools and skills, making Estonia a pioneering hub for AI-integrated education.
The move comes as Estonia continues to top international academic rankings. In the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Estonia ranked highest in Europe for mathematics, science, and creative thinking, and second only to Ireland in reading. These results underscore how a digitally oriented education strategy can yield world-class outcomes. Rather than discouraging the use of digital devices, Estonian educators embrace smartphones as everyday learning tools, an approach that aligns with the country’s broader societal openness to technology.
AI Leap: Transforming Education Nationwide
Estonia’s AI Leap initiative is designed to give 58,000 students and 5,000 teachers access to premium AI learning tools by 2027, beginning with 16- and 17-year-olds this fall. The government is currently negotiating licenses with OpenAI to roll out the technology. Teachers will also receive training to ensure effective use of AI in the classroom, with a focus on self-directed learning, digital ethics, and equal access to resources.
Education Minister Kristina Kallas emphasized that Estonia aims to become not just a tech-savvy nation but a globally intelligent AI user. “We are not banning,” Kallas said during the Education World Forum in London. “We’ve given guidelines, especially for younger students, but schools regulate phone use on their own.” For students aged 12 and under, some restrictions are in place, but overall, mobile phones are welcomed when used for educational purposes.
Kallas highlighted how integrated technology is into daily life in Estonia. In upcoming local elections, 16-year-olds, who are allowed to vote, will cast their ballots online via smartphones. “It would be strange to let them vote online but not use their phones in school,” she noted, reinforcing the importance of consistent messaging when it comes to digital literacy and civic responsibility.
AI in Schools : A Vision Beyond Traditional Learning
Estonia’s approach reflects a deeper educational transformation. The country was an early adopter of classroom technology, launching the Tiigrihüpe (Tiger Leap) program in 1997 to connect all schools to the internet. Now, Estonia sees smartphones and AI as natural progressions of that vision. Kallas envisions a future where traditional homework essays are replaced by oral assessments and AI-assisted learning.
The minister warns that societies must adapt quickly: “We either evolve into faster-thinking and higher-level-thinking creatures, or the technology will take over our consciousness.” By embedding AI into the fabric of its education system, Estonia isn’t just preparing students for the future, it’s helping to define it.