Boris Johnson's Tory government intends to impose a total ban on the use of mobile phones by children and young people in British schools.
This was announced by the Minister of Education, Gavin Williamson.
According to Williamson, the obsession with cell phones has "damaging effects" on school performance, well-being and sometimes even the mental health of younger people.
Before the formal adoption of the provision, the minister made it known that he wanted to discuss it with the heads of the institutes;
but - as the Times reports - he is determined to go on anyway.
Some teachers' unions, closer to the Labor opposition, have criticized the idea dismissing it as "a distraction" from the most urgent school problems, linked in particular in this phase to the need to make up for the time lost by the children later on. to the effects of the Covid emergency and lockdowns. While there are those who note how the limitations on the use of smartphones are already in force here and there, albeit delegated to the directives of the individual principals and with differences between school and school on the island. A British study of a few years ago also recorded an average drop in performance among students of over 8% due to cell phone addiction; and 14-15% among children with greater learning difficulties.
Results contested by other scholars, but substantially confirmed by the experience of countries such as Norway or Spain, which also decided to impose a generalized ban - or at least a framework of restrictions - for some time.