An article from the UK.  European schools required students used fountain pens for far longer than in the US.  A ‘biro’, by the way, is what they call a ballpoint, (named for Laslo Biro, and early ballpoint pioneer).  Kind of like lift vs elevator, or braces vs suspenders.

16 things today’s school kids don’t carry in their rucksacks

As parents splash out almost £300 on gadgets for their children to take to school, we look back with nostalgia on what they don’t carry in their bags any more…

Pots of ink or fountain pen cartridges

God forbid one of these burst in your bag! Remember the transition from pencil to fountain pens at primary school, once you’d learned ‘joined-up writing’? Yep, not needed now: everything’s typed on tablets or just scrawled in biro.