Finland Opens New School Year With Mandatory Physical Activity, Continued Phone Restrictions

HELSINKI — Schools across Finland began the 2026-27 academic year this week under a new legal requirement: education providers in pre-primary and comprehensive education must now actively promote physical activity as part of the school day, not just teach it as a subject. Helsinki, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Joensuu, Lahti, and Rovaniemi started classes Wednesday, with other cities following through the week under staggered municipal calendars.

The physical-activity mandate builds directly on mobile phone restrictions introduced the previous school year, which remain firmly in place: phones stay off during lessons unless a teacher grants permission for educational or health reasons, and the Finnish National Agency for Education has now recommended extending restrictions to breaks and other unsupervised periods too. Finnish law sets school years at 190 working days, adjusted for public holidays — this year's calendar runs 189 days, ending June 5, 2027.

The dual reform — more mandated movement, less mandated screen time — reflects a Finnish education system willing to legislate around student wellbeing at a granular, day-to-day level rather than leaving it to individual schools. The changes arrive alongside a separate, less comfortable data point making headlines the same week: a new survey found rising violence against teachers in Finland, a trend that adds an uneasy backdrop to a system otherwise associated internationally with calm, high-trust classrooms.