Schools in the Netherlands have imposed a complete ban on the use of mobile phones, DPA reported.
Phones in high school classrooms have been banned since the beginning of this year, and this measure has already extended to elementary schools since the start of the new school year.
The Dutch Ministry of Education said that mobile phones distract students and reduce their ability to concentrate, which adversely affects learning outcomes. Phones may still be used in class if they are compatible with the lesson content.
Students are only permitted to use cell phones for medical reasons or because of a disability. In schools where cell phones are banned even during recess, the atmosphere is improving, local television reports.
“During recess, children socialize more because they talk to each other more often,” said a scientist from Radboud University in Nijmegen.
Banning mobile phones in schools is a subject of discussion in the Netherlands. Several education ministers in a row opposed taking measures at the national level.
Meanwhile, thousands protested in central Budapest after the principal of a prominent high school was fired for failing to enforce a government-imposed mobile phone ban.
The decree passed in August requires schools to collect students’ phones and smart devices at the start of the school day, AFP reported.
The move reignited tensions between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and teachers, who have protested poor working conditions for the past two years.
On the first day of the school year, thousands of people filled the square in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees public education from 2022.
In mid-August, Imre Madah High School in Budapest announced that it would not be confiscating the digital devices.
In a statement to parents, the school’s teachers said the school’s “pedagogical aim” was to “train students in the proper use of digital culture”.
A week later, the interior ministry fired director Chaba Mesaros, saying “a director who does not respect the law and openly violates it cannot lead a state institution.”
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