The LREM deputies have tabled in the Assembly a text to “ban” the use of the smartphone at school and college. A reformulation of an article of the code of education, intended to “secure the headteachers”.
The bill of the deputies of the Republic En Marche (LREM), led by Richard Ferrand, was tabled on May 14, 2018 in the National Assembly, and put online last night. An examination of the text is scheduled for 29 May by the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education. Then, on June 7, there will be a discussion in public session, in order to be able to apply the text as soon as the next school year starts.
“During his campaign, the President of the Republic has committed to prohibit the use of mobile phones in primary schools and college. The use of mobile phones is developing very significantly among young people. The digital barometer established by the regulatory authority for electronic communications and posts (ARCEP) indicates that 93% of 12-17 year olds has a mobile phone in 2016 (72% in 2005), “reads introduction of the bill.
“Ensuring students an environment that allows attention and concentration”
According to LREM MEPs, the use of mobile phones in the classroom and in schools would lead to “many dysfunctions incompatible with the improvement of the school climate”, ranging from cyberharcement to cybersexism, as well as exposure of students to violent or shocking content “. It is to guarantee young people “an environment that allows attention, concentration and reflection essential to activity, understanding and memory” that it is therefore proposed to prohibit any use of a telephone portable in primary and middle school – even on recess times, during which it would limit “social interactions”.
“This ban responds to both educational issues and issues of school life. This is why a large number of schools practice a total ban on mobile phones, often to the great satisfaction of the players, but in the absence of a suitable legal framework. It is therefore necessary to consolidate the legal framework to allow the effective prohibition of mobile phones in all schools and colleges and secure the directors and heads of schools implementing this prohibition, “reads the text.
“The ban becomes the norm, the authorization the exception”
The proposed law contains a single article, which proposes just to rewrite Article L. 511-5 of the Education Code. Currently, since 2010, this article provides that “in kindergartens, elementary schools and colleges, the use during any teaching activity and in the places provided for in the rules of procedure, by a pupil, of a mobile telephone is prohibited.
According to the proposal to amend the LREM deputies, it would now stipulate that “except for the places where, under the conditions it specifies, the internal regulations expressly authorize, the use of a mobile phone by a student is prohibited in kindergartens, elementary schools and colleges.
As noted by Marc Rees, editor-in-chief of Next Inpact, a site dedicated to new technologies, “with LREM’s proposal, we are far from a legal revolution, but to take a closer look, with this new wording, the prohibition becomes the norm, and authorization the exception. The laptop will be banned in all schools and colleges, except in the places defined by the rules of procedure (teachers room, purely administrative parts, etc.).
According to Emmanuel Macron, whom we interviewed before his election, in the spring of 2017, “some people were quick to object that the ban on smartphones was already in the code of education or in the internal regulations, but what is the reality of institutions? Homework is also forbidden in primary school, have they disappeared everywhere? ”
As we already noted last year, such a ban seems difficult to implement. Vincent Le Roy, departmental secretary of the Unsa de l’Indre et Loire, noted that “employees of school life have other things to do than the hunt for smartphones,” and it would also be inconceivable to ” search all the children’s bags. ”
For its part, Next Inpact notes that the use of cell phone jammer in schools (in order to make cell phones unusable) is prohibited by the Post and Electronic Communications Code, except in a restricted setting linked to the public order.