The Dutch government said on Tuesday, in a bid to limit distractions during lessons, mobile phones, tablets and smartwatches will be largely banned from classrooms from Jan. 1, 2024.
Devices will only be allowed if they are specifically needed, for instance during lessons on digital skills, for medical reasons, or for people with disabilities.
Education minister, Robbert Dijkgraaf made this known in a statement, “Even though mobile phones are intertwined with our lives, they do not belong in the classroom.
“Students need to be able to concentrate and need to be given the opportunity to study well. Mobile phones are a disturbance, scientific research shows. We need to protect students against this.”
The government said it would be up to individual schools to agree on the exact rules with teachers, parents and pupils including whether they wanted to completely ban devices from schools.
The ban is the result of an agreement between the ministry, schools and related organisations.
Dijkgraaf said schools can find their own way to organise the ban, but legal rules will follow if this does not yield enough results by the summer of 2024.
Various studies have found limiting children’s screen time is linked to improved cognition and concentration.
Dijkgraaf added that the scheme will be reviewed at the end of the 2024/2025 school year to see how well it had worked and whether a legal ban is needed.
Other countries, including England and France, have also proposed banning mobile phones to improve learning.
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