No more mobile phones at school: priority to learning!
Banning mobile phones at school means giving every pupil the chance to concentrate better on
their learning, avoid distractions and cyberbullying, and rediscover the pleasure
of being together at school.
Objective:
- Greater focus on learning: a notification can distract a pupil's attention for up to 20 minutes
- Better prevention of cyberbullying and online misconduct
- More social interaction, play and collaboration among pupils
- An improvement in health and wellbeing (less screen time, less fatigue, better sleep)
- Greater equity, without differences based on phone models
1. Expected benefits
- Concentration and learning: a notification can distract a pupil's attention for almost 20 minutes, for example. Removing this distraction gives everyone better conditions to succeed.
- Preventing cyberbullying: smartphones make it easier to spread hurtful content. The ban reduces these risks during the school day.
- Social interaction: without phones, pupils talk, play and collaborate more with each other, improving the school atmosphere.
- Health and wellbeing: limiting screen exposure reduces sedentary behaviour, eye strain and sleep disorders.
- Equity: not all pupils have devices of the same standard.
2. Practical arrangements
- Pupils may keep their mobile phone, but it must be switched off and put away from the moment they enter school until the end of school or extracurricular activities.
Exceptions provided:
- Educational use supervised by the teacher (information searches, educational applications).
- Pupils with a disability or medical condition requiring a connected device.
The practical details (instructions, lockers, sanctions in case of non-compliance with the ban) are left to the schools' own discretion and included in their internal rules.
3. Response to criticism
- “Technology is being demonised” → No. The Minister supports a pedagogical and reasonable use of digital tools, but refuses to let it become a permanent source of distraction. Our priority is pupils' skill development.
- “Pupils will no longer be able to contact their parents” → They can do so when leaving school. In an emergency, parents can always call the school management or reception.
- “Why not only partially restrict it?” → Because school must remain a place dedicated to learning, without interruption or arbitrary exception.
- “What about abroad?” → Many countries (France, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil) have made the same decision. Flanders has also followed suit.
- “This already existed in many schools” → That's true, but here we're generalising it everywhere, up to the final year, and ensuring it's the same in all schools.
4. Key figures and references
- 20 minutes: the time a simple notification can distract a pupil from their learning.
- The WHO and UNESCO explicitly recommend keeping smartphones out of classrooms, including for pupils over 15 years old.
- More and more countries are adopting the same measure: Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, Flanders, France.
5. Key takeaway messages
- “The aim is not to demonise this tool but to regulate its use to preserve focus on learning.”
- “A notification can distract attention for 20 minutes: that's a huge loss for learning.”
- “School must remain a place of learning and social interaction, not endless scrolling with your head bowed over your phone.”
- “Our priority: basic skills for our pupils, a quality school.”