March 9, 2024, 9:07 am | Read time: 6 minutes
Recently, smartphones and tablets have been banned in Italy’s educational institutions. The country has been gradually taking steps to prevent students from using their communication devices during class time, and similar measures are seen in many parts of Europe. A potential ban on cellphones in schools is also being discussed in Germany. Read more about the topic at TECHBOOK.
Being an adult doesn’t protect you from being distracted by a blinking device. In fact, the phone doesn’t even need to blink or ring to be distracting. Smartphones exert a strong pull in everyday life, even when you should be focusing on something else. It must be even more challenging for teenagers and children to keep their smartphones—often loaded with games and social media apps—in their pockets when the only alternative is sometimes boring classes. However, students no longer have this choice everywhere. Some of our neighboring countries already ban smartphones in schools or are planning to do so.
Overview
These Countries Are Taking Action Against Smartphone Use in Schools
Recently, Italy’s Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara announced plans to tighten guidelines for smartphone use in schools, kindergartens, and similar institutions. The news agency Ansa was the first to report this. Since 2007, there has been a ban on using smartphones and similar devices in Italian educational institutions unless it is related to teaching.
However, the report states that this rule has hardly been followed. To prevent smartphone use in its previously permitted form from leading to private activities, smartphones and tablets are now to be completely removed from classrooms.
In France, smartphone use in schools has been banned for many years. More information can be found on the website of the French Ministry of Education.
Additionally, the British government recently released new guidelines for smartphone use in schools. These suggest a general cellphone ban—students might have to hand in their phones at the entrance. Initially, this is a recommendation. “It is up to the headteachers to decide whether to follow the non-legally binding rules and how strictly to enforce them,” according to the British Mirror.
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The topic has been simmering in Germany for a while. Problems associated with excessive smartphone use are also observed here. The news website Heise reported on related discussions last October.
According to the report, many politicians, scientists, and the Professional Association of Pediatricians support a general cellphone ban—at least in elementary schools. Students are fixated on smartphones and tablets and therefore rarely go outside. However, teachers’ organizations and unions oppose this. This was also confirmed upon inquiry by TECHBOOK.
What the German Teachers’ Association Says
“A comprehensive general cellphone ban is difficult to implement organizationally,” explains Stefan Düll, president of the German Teachers’ Association. It would take away valuable class time to monitor compliance and deal with disobedient students. Better than a ban, which often makes the forbidden even more appealing, is open discussion of the topic in the presence of students. “When they have engaged with the pros and cons themselves, it is much more likely to lead to an understanding of balanced smartphone and digital device use,” Düll explains.
The teachers’ union (GEW) also opposes a general cellphone ban in schools. “It is sensible, however, for the school community on site—teachers, parents, and students—to agree on and implement rules that everyone supports,” a GEW spokesperson tells TECHBOOK.
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“Ultimately, it’s also about teaching learners a self-critical approach to cellphone use,” continues Stefan Düll from the German Teachers’ Association. The school could thus contribute to teaching young people a balanced approach to the “digital penetration” of their lives. Moreover, smartphones can be specifically used for educational purposes.
Promoting students’ media literacy is often cited as an argument for educational smartphone use. The devices are not least research aids. “The digitization of our everyday lives will continue to increase in the future,” says Teachers’ Association President Düll. “A ban in schools does not help children and young people develop the necessary skills to use digital media and social networks appropriately and responsibly.”
Example of Denmark and Sweden
A look at Denmark, however, casts a rather critical light on these apparent justifications. The country, which—like Sweden—began integrating laptops and smartphones into education very early, was long considered a model for digitalized education. And it is precisely there that some schools are starting to completely ban computers and similar devices. In some cases, students now have to hand in their phones at the school entrance and only get them back after the last class. The reactions are not just alarming to concerned parents. “My son thought he would die when he was told to hand over the phone,” a father told the dpa news agency. At the school in question, classes were to be held without communication devices for an initial two-week trial period.
It has gotten out of hand, acknowledges Mattias Tesfaye, Denmark’s Minister for Children and Education. In an interview with the newspaper Politiken, he explained that the country’s classrooms have become “extensions of youth rooms,” where too much streaming, gaming, and shopping already takes place. Tesfaye regrets having made students digital guinea pigs in hindsight.
Sweden, too, which was long proud of its digitalized school youth, is making a concerted effort to backtrack. In response to poor results in the latest Pisa study, the Swedish government is implementing a general smartphone ban up to the 9th grade. This applies both in class and during breaks.
No Smartphone Ban in German Schools in Sight
However, it is not expected that something similar will happen in Germany soon. Because: “Since school matters are a state responsibility, each federal state can establish principles and bans at its discretion.” This can be read on the website Ins Netz gehen, which is associated with the Federal Center for Health Education (BzgA).
And here, it seems, the view is that rules must always follow the “principle of proportionality,” and that a cellphone ban would infringe on students’ fundamental rights.