French pupils banned from using mobiles in school

Phones are forbidden in classrooms already, but education minister says it will now include all breaks

FRANCE is to ban pupils using mobile phones in primary and secondary schools starting in September 2018, the education minister has confirmed.

Phones are already forbidden in French classrooms but starting next school year, pupils will be barred from taking them out at breaks, lunch times and between lessons.

Teachers and parents are divided over a total ban, however, with some saying children must be able to “live in their time”. In France, some 93 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds own mobile phones.

“These days the children don’t play at break time anymore, they are just all in front of their smartphones and from an educational point of view that’s a problem,” said Jean-michel Blanquer, the French education minister.

“This is about ensuring the rules and the law are respected. The use of telephones is banned in class. With headmasters, teachers and parents, we must come up with a way of protecting pupils from loss of concentration via screens and phones,” he said.

“Are we going to ban mobile phones from schools? The answer is yes.”

Studies suggested that a significant number of pupils continued to use their mobiles in class and receive or send calls or text messages.

Up to 40 per cent of punishments were mobile-related, according to Philippe Tournier, a Paris headmaster with the Snpden-unsa teaching union.

But he said it was tricky to know how to clamp down on the practice without being able to search pupils’ bags, and it remains unclear how the ban would work. Mr Blanquer had previously suggested that schools would have to provide lockers. “We are currently working on this [ban] and it could work in various ways,” said Mr Blanquer. “Phones may be needed for teaching purposes or in emergencies so phones will have to be locked away.”

Earlier this year, he suggested that if French politicians were able to put their phones away during council of ministers meetings, then surely it was “possible for any human group, including a class” to do the same. The practice is already in use in many French “colleges”, or primary schools. Previous education ministers have resisted a total ban. In 2011, Luc Chatel, the then education minister, told senators: “The use of mobiles has entered modern daily habits. We cannot ignore the need to communicate, notably between children and their parents, who are themselves in demand.”

Emmanuel Macron spelt out his intention to ban mobile phones across all schools in his manifesto before his election as French president in May.