France’s Ministry of National Education announced on Tuesday that the use of mobile phones will be completely banned in all primary and secondary schools in the country from the start of 2025 as part of a new “Digital Break” initiative.
Around 200 secondary schools will take part in the experiment, which will require pupils to hand in their phones on arrival at reception. The device ban goes further than a 2018 law that bans primary and secondary school pupils from using their phones on school grounds, but allows them to keep them in their possession.
The decision follows an expert report commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron and presented on April 30. The report looked at the impact of screens on children and teenagers and recommended strengthening measures to limit their use in schools.
Nicole Belloubet, Minister of National Education, emphasised that the ban does not mean a rejection of digital technologies in education. She noted the importance of integrating pedagogical digital tools that will continue to be used in the educational process.
Europe against the use of phones in schools
Banning the use of phones in schools has long been discussed in Europe. In countries where bans exist, they are most often limited to their use and do not require children to hand them in.
According to a decision taken by the Wallonia-Brussels Education Network (WBE), primary and secondary school pupils will be banned from taking smartphones with them from the 2024-2025 school year, which started on Monday in 373 French-speaking schools.
In December 2022, Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara banned the use of mobile phones during lessons, citing a study by the Senate Committee on Education and Culture. There, mobile phones are compared to cocaine and show the harmful effects of unrestricted use of electronic devices on children’s concentration, memory and critical thinking skills.
In Germany, each state has different rules on phones, with the strictest in Bavaria, where all digital media that are not used for educational purposes must be switched off in school premises, otherwise they can be temporarily confiscated.
In Portugal, a long-running debate on the right of students to use mobile phones culminated in a 2012 regulation banning the use of these devices during lessons. The exception is when a teacher requests the use of mobile phones as a teaching aid.
In Spain, the decision to ban the use of mobile phones during lessons is made by the authorities of each autonomous community, and the regions of Castile-La Mancha and Galicia have had such a ban in place since 2015. According to the study, both regions have improved the performance of their pupils and reduced the number of bullying incidents in educational institutions.
