Mobile phones are banned in classrooms during the new school year
In Italy, smartphones are generally banned in classrooms from the new school year, according to an decree from the Right-Wing Government of Minister President Giorgia Meloni. Smartphones or cell phones can no longer be used for instructional purposes.
The new decree was published by Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, who is a member of the right-wing party Lega. With the cell phone ban, Valditara aims to make classrooms quieter again. Students are also supposed to be encouraged to write by hand once more.
To this end, Valditara ordered the reintroduction of a "Student Calendar," in which tasks must be recorded with a pen. "We need to accustom our children to pencil and paper again," the minister said. In this way, parents are also supposed to be able to better monitor what is happening at school.
In principle, there has been a cell phone ban at Italian schools for years, which was relaxed at times and not always enforced. Similar decisions exist in other countries. In Germany, discussions about such a ban are ongoing.
Italy's Education Ministry is officially called "Ministry for School and Merit" since the right-wing Three-Party Coalition took office in October 2022. With this name, the performance idea is supposed to be emphasized more strongly.
The new "Student Calendar" will be implemented in Italian classrooms during the upcoming school year, encouraging students to record assignments by hand to promote handwriting skills and parental monitoring. Following the cell phone ban, some Italian students might find themselves using mobiles less frequently in their classrooms located across the country.
