Schools become a cell phone -free zone – diepresse.com

Vienna. It was one of his last official acts as a city council of education in Vienna and is one of his first official acts as Minister of Education: Christoph Return (NEOS) announced on Monday at his first press conference as the new head of department, an Austria ban on cell phones in schools. A corresponding regulation should still be in the course of this month.

In the future, schools will become a « cell phone -free zone » in the first eight school levels. The ban therefore affects elementary schools, middle and special schools as well as AHS substances. The use of mobile phones, smartwatches and comparable electronic devices is thus prohibited both during the lesson and during breaks.

So far there is no such nationwide uniform regulation. The Ministry of Education saw a ban until the end – for legal reasons. Schools could not be « instructed » to impose such bans, it was said just three weeks ago from the ministry, because that was the responsibility of the respective school and their house rules.

The first pink education minister evaluates it differently. In practice, the mobile phone ban would actually have to be laid down at the school location via house rules. (This continues to make the decision to the school forum or the school community committee and thus parents, teachers and students). A regulation of the Ministry of Education, in which schools are explicitly explicitly explicitly explicitly explicitly declared “cell phone -free zones”, is strengthened to school leaders, according to return. An enforcement of the ban is much easier. The schools could then set exceptions autonomously.

« Massive problems »

The new Minister of Education considers the often outdoor use of mobile phones to be a « massive problem ». Cell phones are a « real concentration killer in the classroom ». They would be more and more in competition with class. The digital distraction has « negative effects » on knowledge acquisition. As Return explains, there are studies that would show that the loss of learning is greater than those during the Corona pandemic due to the increasing mobile phone use during class.

But it is not only the mobile phone use that is problematic. Even the physical, psychological and social effects should not be underestimated, as environmental physician Hans Peter Hutter warned at the joint press conference with the Minister of Education. Excessive cell phone use increases the irritability and leads to fear and sleep disorders. In addition, the already existing lack of movement continues to increase. In this respect, a mobile phone ban is to be welcomed at school. As the doctor thinks, the social well -being of children and adolescents would certainly improve.

The topic is not brand new. Most recently, more and more federal states rely on a nationwide mobile phone ban. In Carinthia, one has been in elementary schools since the beginning of February. In Styria you recently went one step further. Here the mobile phone ban applies up to and including the sixth school level. And in Vienna, Christoph Return announced a mobile phone ban at elementary and middle schools just three weeks ago (still in his function as a city councilor in education).

Teachers and parents for ban

However, many schools have not waited for federal or nationwide requirements anyway. In your house regulations, you have been determining corresponding rules for mobile phone use in class or on the school area for a long time. More than half of the teachers report on smartphone bans in class (53 percent) and during breaks (63 percent) at their school. Volks and middle schools are more restrictive than other school types. This was shown by a recently published (non -representative) survey by the Federal Verlag textbook (ÖBV) and the University of Linz. According to this, almost three quarters of the teachers support cell phone bans in schools. The umbrella organization of the parent associations at compulsory schools recently spoke out for them. « Cell phones have lost nothing at the school, » says chairwoman Evelyn Kometter. However, parents would be sure that their children are doing well on their way to school or they have arrived at school well, so there is a need to safely maintain the devices.

By the way, mobile devices from everyday school life should not completely disappear. Because the Minister of Education wants to « minimize digital distraction ». At the same time, however, he wants to « promote digital learning ». Children and adolescents would have to learn the correct use of digital devices and media in schools. Media education wants to intensify return.