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The Ministry of Education of the Netherlands has announced that from 1 January 2024, a ban on the use of devices such as smartphones, tablets or smartwatches in classes with limited exceptions will be introduced in all high schools. “Just watch TikTok, text with a classmate or send photos on Snapchat during lessons,” the ministry wrote in the press release, “mobile phones will no longer be allowed in classrooms from January 1, 2024.”
This is not a law, but an agreement between the government, parties and representatives and associations of the school sector: all schools will have until the beginning of next year to agree with teachers, parents and students on how to apply the prohibition, which in any case must be respected. On the government website we read that “at the end of the next school year it will be assessed whether the agreement will have had the desired effects or whether a legal ban will be necessary”.
Cell phones do not belong in the classroom. Students must be able to concentrate there and be given every opportunity to learn well. Cell phones disrupt this. #minocw https://t.co/s6umCXTlPH
— Robbert Dijkgraaf (@RHDijkgraaf) July 4, 2023
The agreement comes after a discussion in parliament that has been going on for several months on how to regulate the problem of student distraction due to the presence of smartphones in class. In February, parliament accepted a motion by MPs Peters and Beertema to start a discussion with parent, teacher and expert representatives on the best way to keep smartphones out of classrooms.
The only exceptions to the ban are those that concern the use of devices for educational purposes, for example during lessons on computer skills, or for medical reasons or related to learning disabilities.
In France, a law was passed to ban the use of smartphones in classrooms as early as 2018, and there is an ongoing debate in Finland about whether to do the same. In Italy last December the Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara had sent a circular one in schools containing the ban on the use of smartphones during lessons. However, it is a ban that in the countries where it exists is not always easy to apply.