That's yet again not true. Parents are often paying for the Chromebooks used in some of these markets (eg, US & Canada at least). That the school requires a certain OS doesn't change who pays for it, just like parents are still buying TI graphing calculators.
> Before COVID, most schools were still about pen and paper in most European countries,
Gonna need a citation on that one. It'd be quite surprising for European schools to be so far behind
And from what I can find, they weren't. Eg way back in 2006 https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/19/4242022/europe-ict-survey...
"Scandinavian nations like Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are able to provide computing equipment to almost every single student and teacher within their borders"