France closes in on phone ban in schools in September

French lawmakers have secured a deal on a bill that would outlaw the use of mobile phones in schools starting in September, one of Emmanuel Macron’s pledges during last year’s presidential campaign.

Senators and National Assembly deputies reached the agreement late Wednesday on the ban for all three tiers of French education (primary, middle and high school), except for educational purposes.

Students will now have “the right to disconnect,” Cathy Racon Bouzon, a deputy in Macron’s Republic on the Move party, tweeted on Thursday.

Teachers have been calling for the ban to curtail a growing distraction in classrooms, with nearly nine out of ten French teens aged 12 to 17 now owning a smartphone.

Besides cutting down on screen time, the bill also aims to protect children from dangerous online content such as violence or pornography, as well as cyber bullying.

It also makes it easier for teachers to confiscate phones if necessary.

Each school will decide how to apply the ban, for example by making students hand them over when entering school premises or requiring them to keep them turned off in their backpacks.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer had defended the government’s plan in June as “a law for the 21st century” and the “technological revolution.”

Critics have called the bill a “purely cosmetic” attempt at resolving the battle schools face against mobile phones, pointing out that schools already have the option of banning phones.