Oldenburg demands: no uniform mobile phone bans in schools!

Oldenburg demands: no uniform mobile phone bans in schools!

Oldenburg, Deutschland - Many school children in Germany always have their cell phones with them these days, which always leads to heated discussions. At the Conference of Education in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Simone Oldenburg, President of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Minister of Education from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, commented on this topic and emphasized that there will be no nationwide regulations for cell phone bans in schools. Due to federalism, the individual federal states can determine their own regulations, which means that uniform handling of cell phones in schools is difficult. Oldenburg demands more competence in dealing with social media, since schools often only have limited access to it. In addition, she finds that responsibility is also with the parents, as Federal Minister of Education Karin Prien strongly emphasizes.

The debate about cell phone bans takes place in a context that is worrying for many. According to a survey by the opinion research institute YouGov, over 90 percent of German restrictions on mobile phone use in schools would like. 50 percent of the respondents support a general ban on private cell phone use, while 41 percent advocate a partial ban at certain times. We are experiencing a development that is already a reality in countries like France and the Netherlands. There have been regulations here for a long time that restrict cell phone use in the classroom. In Italy, for example, a ban on the use of smartphones will be introduced in higher classes from the school year 2025/2026. The 12-year-old students are not allowed to use cell phones in class.

media education and challenges

Another aspect that both Oldenburg and Prien emphasize is the need for comprehensive media education. This seems more important than mere use of cell phones. The expert commission, which Prien promises, is intended to develop recommendations for dealing with digital media. The first meeting of the Commission is still scheduled for this summer break and the first results should be available at the beginning of next year. The aim of these measures is to teach the students to deal with digital media in such a way that they can recognize the dangers that lurk on the Internet-such as cyber grooming, violence or extremism.

A study also shows that young people in Germany spend an average of 36.9 hours a week on the smartphone. Many of them receive a variety of notifications every day during school. This constant accessibility not only burdens you, but also harbors health risks. According to studies, 24.5 percent of 10 to 17-year-old social media services used a lot of risk, which also fueled the discussion about mobile phone use in schools. Few scientific studies show that schools with a mobile phone ban in class often achieve better test results, especially with low -performance students.

For more information on this topic, you can do the articles from Deutschlandfunk , Zeit and Read German School Portal