Bjergsnæs Efterskole near Viborg allows its students only one hour of mobile phone use per day for the entire school year, and the students say the gain outweighs what they miss.
According to DR, which reported on the school on August 31, 2026, students collect their phones at 18:45 and hand them back in at 19:45. The fixed evening window is the only phone time they have each day.
At most Danish boarding schools, phones are largely put away during the first weeks of the stay. As DR notes, the school near Viborg is not phone-free only during those introductory weeks. The one-hour rule continues through the whole school year.
Third year of the rule
The limited phone time is now running for the third year, per DR. It was introduced to strengthen the students’ relationships with each other.
Oliver Korsholm Rosenkvist, a student at Bjergsnæs Efterskole, told DR that the arrangement is fine. He described a tightly packed program with so much going on that the phone is not something he thinks much about.
Anna Timm Seiding, also a student at the school, said there are more advantages than drawbacks to being without the phone. As she put it to DR, students grow closer by looking each other in the eye and spending time together.
DR reports that the students sometimes miss their phones, particularly in the evening. For them, that is a small price to pay for a stronger sense of community at the efterskole.
Computers do not fill the gap
The school’s management said it is pleased that the large majority of students follow the phone rules. That raises the question of whether students simply turn to their computers for social media instead.
Solveig Bank, pedagogical leader at Bjergsnæs Efterskole, rejected that idea in her comments to DR. According to her, students do not sit in their rooms with computers, because they want to go out and be with others.
The students describe the same pattern. Rosenkvist said they use the computer only briefly in the evening, when they are in their rooms before bedtime. Efterskole is a voluntary year of boarding school in Denmark, typically taken in the 8th, 9th or 10th grade.
