France begins nationwide ban on mobile phones in schools
FRANCE has rolled out a ban forbidding students under 15 from using mobile phones in the classroom, while at least one Australian school reports a positive response to a similar move.
SCHOOLS in France have begun a nationwide ban on mobile phones in the classroom, meaning no child under 15 can have one.
The law which passed in July also forbids tablets and smart watches for primary and junior school students.
President Emmanuel Macron pledged to introduce the ‘detox measure’ to combat France’s phone-addicted children and deal with issues of classroom distraction, bullying and improving the physical activity of students.
The measure also allows high schools, aged 15-18, to introduce partial or total bans on electronic devices as they reopen after the summer break — it is not obligatory for this age group.
Almost 90 per cent of French youth (12-17) own a mobile phone. Their education system hosts 12 million students.
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The law has sparked plenty of debate but parents seem to be supportive of the ban.
Under the ban students won’t be able to use their phones at all during school hours, including meal breaks.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Paris mum Marie-Caroline Madeleine told AFP.
“It’s a good signal that says ‘school is for studying’, it’s not about being on your phone.
“It’s hard with adolescents, you can’t control what they see and that’s one of the things that worries me as a parent.”
France’s Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the ban was a “law for the 21st century”.
“Being open to technologies of the future doesn’t mean we have to accept all their uses,” he said when the bill went through parliament in June.
TO BAN OR NOT?
Schools worldwide have found it tricky to juggle technology in schools.
New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio lifted a phone ban in the city’s schools in 2015, on the view that parents should be able to contact their kids.
The UK’s heath secretary Matt Hancock thinks a phone ban in schools is a great idea.
“I admire head teachers who do not allow mobiles to be used during the school day. I encourage more schools to follow their lead. The evidence is that banning phones in schools works,” he said earlier this year when he was in charge of digital policy.
Earlier this year NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes ordered a review into phone use in the state’s schools. The outcome is yet to be determined.
It came after Finnish education expert linked mobile-phone distraction to Australia’s decline in PISA rankings.
Some Australian schools have already banned phones — McKinnon Secondary School in Victoria introduced a total ban in February and Principal Pitsa Binnion told News Corp Australia the policy has been a success.
McKinnon students still have a Chromebook to use in every class for day-to-day learning but they’re not allowed to use social media.
Ms Binnion said initially “staff cheered and students moaned and groaned,” but now they’re seeing the positives.
“They come to school and they’re not allowed on phones at all during the school day, including recess and lunch breaks,” she said.
“It’s been wonderful in terms of students engaging with each other at lunch time and not looking a their screen.”
She said the policy was implemented after some students complained about being distracted in class.
Ms Binnion said initially the school had to enforce a strict confiscation policy if a student was found using a mobile phone — which saw about 70 phones being handed in a day.
She said that’s no longer the case as students have come to understand the policy.
“Our model is disconnect to connect,” she said.
“It took a bit of doing and a lot of conversations. It’s not about punishment, it’s about engaging in the learning.”
Ms Binnion also leads by example and doesn’t use her mobile phone on school property.
“I think anyone can do it if we’ve done it, it takes a community to get behind it.”
But not everyone agrees with the measure, Western Sydney University technology researcher and early childhood expert Dr Joanne Orlando wrote in The Conversation earlier this year that Australia should not ban mobile phones in schools because it’s important to educate kids to live in the era they are raised in.
“A good education for students today is knowing how to use technology to learn, communicate, and work with ideas,” she wrote.
“Banning students from using smartphones is a 1950s response to a 2018 state-of-play. Mobile phone use is a complex social activity and taking phones away will likely lead to underground and hidden use by teens.”
