The Minister of Education, Anna Simó, has announced that she will order educational centers to keep mobile phones out of nursery and primary schools. This measure, which will be included in the regulatory framework that it is preparing, will be applicable from the 2024-2025 academic year.
On the other hand, in secondary schools the regulation of its use would be left in the hands of each educational center.
This is the first time that Simó defends a total restriction of mobile phones in a school space. He does so after the Catalan School Council gave him a summary of the debates carried out throughout the territory by the educational community. In this summary, we do not talk about prohibiting cell phones but rather regulating them, but as pointed out by the president of this consulting body, Jesús Vinyes, “it gives clues” about what management, teachers, families and students expect.
The councilor’s change of course regarding the regulation of mobile phones and respect for the autonomy of each center also occurs after the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training announced that it is in favor of a total ban in primary and secondary schools, after the knowledge of international studies, and that he will transfer it in the framework of reflection meetings that he will promote with the regional ministries that are the ones that have powers to determine this regulation.
Simó has announced that the department is preparing a proposal to regulate mobile phones that it will then transfer to schools and will make a decision in the coming weeks.
“The objective is to develop a general framework that all schools have. It must be simple. Primary must be a space free of mobile phones,” stated the counselor, who pointed out that aspects such as security in data protection are being studied. and the responsibility of teachers when it comes to safeguarding this data.
The ban on mobile phones in primary school, a stage in which students are between 6 and 12 years old, is expected to come into force at the beginning of the next school year, when it is believed that schools will have had time to adapt.
Regarding the indications for secondary school, Simó has defended that each institute should make the decision on how to regulate the use of mobile phones. “We want to seek co-responsibility of the centers and the educational community and for a debate to take place,” she said. Currently, almost half already prohibit it.
