The French government announced yesterday that it plans to introduce a general ban on the use of mobile phones in schools by the start of classes in 2025 at the latest.
“I think there is an urgency at the national level. We are also talking about the health of our young people, it is a mission in which we have no right to fail,” said the minister in charge of school success, Alexandre Portier, for CNews/Europe 1 television.
He said that it would be incomprehensible if the government was not able to implement that “digital break” no later than the beginning of the next school year, in September 2025.
The minister added that everyone who has tested the ban so far has given very good marks.
“This will allow young people to fully focus while classes are in progress,” said Portier, adding that this is necessary because there can be no success in a school if an atmosphere fully dedicated to learning is not created.
Since the beginning of this school year, in accordance with the proposals of the “screens” commission at the request of President Emmanuel Macron, around 180 schools in France have been testing a “digital break”, i.e. a complete ban on mobile phones. Each school determines the method of conducting the experiment.
For example, in some schools, students leave their phones in cassettes or boxes and take them at the end of class.
Since 2018, mobile phone use has been banned by law in primary and lower classes of secondary schools in France, but students can have devices in their bags if they are switched off and out of the way. They don’t have to leave them at the entrance.
Portier said that there is a law passed six years ago that has not yet been implemented due to a “lack of political will” because, as he said, it was feared to go to the end.
Other countries are also testing this system. In Hungary, for example, according to a recent decree, students leave their phones with teachers at the beginning of the day.
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