If France and Quebec have one thing in common, it’s that on both sides of the Atlantic, the vast majority of teachers want cellphones to be banned in schools. In Quebec, nine out of ten teachers agree, according to a Federation of Teachers’ Unions (FSE) survey of 7,000 members. But while Quebec Minister of Education Bernard Drainville says he’s “thinking about it,” France opted in 2018 to pass legislation banning cellphones in all elementary and secondary schools.
At the massive request of teachers, former education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer passed this law, which bans the use of mobile phones both in the classroom and in playgrounds, explains Didier Georges of the National Union of National Education Management Staff (SNPDEN). “It is very rare that there are no controversies in France. But for once everyone agreed! »
A law recognized by parents
At the time, Didier Georges was rector of the La Grange aux Belles college in a working-class district of Paris. “The decision provided a legal framework for regulations that varied from facility to facility. We all greeted her with relief. Even parents, who often found it difficult to convince their children to leave their phones at home. No more endless arguments with some parents. I remember receiving dozens of congratulatory messages. »
In October 2018, a video published on the Internet outraged the entire political class and confirmed the importance of such a law. It showed a teenager being filmed by one of his classmates from the Édouard Branly high school in Créteil pointing a dummy gun at his teacher.
According to Pierre Priouret, mathematics professor and general secretary of the Main Union of Toulouse University and Secondary School Teachers (SNES-FSU), nobody would think of reconsidering this ban, which is now a general consensus in the world of teachers. A measure also applied to most secondary schools, although at this level the decision rests with each institution.
“It was a measure widely requested by teachers but also by parents,” he said, who wanted the state to establish a framework for the proliferation of laptops in our facilities. The law served as a linchpin, although schools had already taken various measures, such as a ban in the classroom, but not always in playgrounds. It was important, if only symbolically. »
The law doesn’t regulate everything
If this law was necessary, recognizes Florence Zink, who teaches Spanish at the Jean Drouant hotel management school in west Paris, “it doesn’t mean that all problems have been solved. At its facility, management took the hard line. Once a phone is found, it is confiscated and locked in the principal’s office. In practice, many students continue to secretly consult their laptops in class, she says. “Some teachers don’t do it to avoid conflict and not to interrupt their course. Others ask students to put it in a box at the entrance to the class. »
The law appears to be popular enough that there is talk of extending it to high school. This is also the opinion of the wife of the President of the Republic, Brigitte Macron, who has long been a high school literature teacher. “I’d be in favor of extending what’s in college to high school. The laptop has no place in school,” she told the daily Le Parisien. “The problem in high school [où l’on entre habituellement à 15 ans], says Didier Georges, is that some students are adults. »
It is estimated that students in France spend an average of more than three hours a day in front of a screen, with the most accessible time apparently remaining on the phone. According to the Ministry of National Education, there is no doubt that mobile phones “can seriously impair the quality of listening and concentration required for classroom activities.” On its website we can read that it is “the cause of a significant proportion of rudeness and disturbances in institutions”, that it affects “the quality of collective life” and that it is sometimes “carrier of cyberbullying” and “denies access to Violence” facilitates images, especially pornographic images”. Several studies, particularly in the Netherlands, have shown that students who frequently check their mobile phone are more likely to get bad grades.
According to the digital barometer published annually in France, 92% of 12-17 year olds own a mobile phone. Most teenagers prefer connecting to the internet to the computer. That’s the whole problem, explains Pierre Prioret. Even if he doesn’t use the phone in math class because he thinks it’s “not a suitable tool”, he points out a contradiction.
A schizophrenic politics?
“We ban cell phones in schools even though the national ministry of education thinks digital technology is great,” says Pierre Priouret. However, students often do not have laptops. They use their phone to check their schedule or look up the translation of a word. Telephoning is prohibited, but there is an injunction for digital use. We have students who are completely dependent on screens, but millions are being spent to equip schools with them. There’s something schizophrenic about this way of doing things. We are in emergency management. We just try to get the students to live together. »
The same applies to Florence Zink, who prefers not to use her cell phone in class so as not to distract the students. She also misses the days when manuals were printed and not digital like today. “With a paper textbook, the student could even leaf through it in a dream. Nowadays, in the digital age, students don’t consult them unless I specifically ask them to. Unlike France, Sweden recently opted for a return to traditional textbooks, believing that screens were partly to blame for the drop in levels.
According to Florence Zink, the laptop has become a stress factor for students who constantly refer to it for fear of missing something. She noted that a lot of people hold it in their hands all the time, “a bit like a kid dragging their bed covers.” In its establishment, many had the reflex to open it to look at the time. Since then, the school administration has placed clocks in every class. During exams and controls, phones must be kept in pockets at the back of the class.
Recently, during an exam, Pierre Priouret and his colleagues surprised a student who had hidden a phone in his underpants. He unexpectedly fell to the ground! “We know very well that some students cheat,” he says, but we only catch 2% of the cheats. Some even require military-grade jammers in exam rooms! »
After France, Quebec isn’t the only place to question the ban on cellphones in schools. The Netherlands is considering a ban, while Belgium says it has chosen to respect the “educational freedom of each school”. Further measures to combat mobile phone addiction are also planned in France. Last month, the French Senate passed a law introducing a “digital majority” that would ban children under 15 from registering on social networks without their parents’ consent. The text will soon be submitted to the National Assembly.