© AFP
A recent petition supporting the prohibition of phones in school is to be debated in the parliamentary chamber.
The consumption of social media starts at an early age, even the youngest pupils are already equipped with smartphones and tablets. The right alternative could make the forgoing an easy task.
A year ago Lycée Ermesinde in Mersch decided to prohibit phones during school hours. Until they’ve reached 5ème, pupils are obligated to put their phones into a box in the classroom. The elder pupils are allowed to have their phones on them, but they don’t use them. The different school model seems to make that possible, confirms 16-year-old Victoria Meise. “It is simply fun to go to school here, it is never boring. Phone ban or not, most pupils don’t even reach for their phones anyway, because we have fun in school”. Hannah Jonk, who started 7ème with the ban, doesn’t miss her phone at all. On the contrary, she thinks it’s easier to distract herself with real people around her.
The right diversion renders the phone uninteresting anyways, concludes Diana Lisarelli, the head of the Maison Relais in Bettembourg. Kids can participate in enough fun activities in the free time they spend in Maison Relais, there is no time to miss smartphones. In school it might not be that easy, since kids are introduced to technology earlier than before. There are already pupils in cycle 2.2, the second year of primary school, who own a smartphone or watch.
The acceptance of rules like the above poses no issues. “We have had one or two cases where we noticed that a child had a phone on them. Then we simply asked them to put the phone into their locker, and that wasn’t a problem”, remembers Diana Lisarelli.
Similar statements have been made by the deputy director of Lycée Ermesinde, Tammy Muller. Not everyone gives their phones away as they should. “The gesture is made anyways: give your phone away. And if they keep them and don’t look at them, even better, it means they have advanced already. We are not the phone police either.”
The parents’ feedback - whether in Maison Relais or secondary school in Mersch - is overwhelmingly positive. They are grateful, adds Tammy Muller. “We are an all-day-school, which is a duration of eight hours. A lot of parents are relieved to know their children are not on their phones for the whole day”.
In secondary school as well as in Maison Relais with the youngest children, the carers try to show the children a responsible and correct way to use smart gadgets. “The goal is to show kids how to use them right and most importantly for good purposes”, says Diana Lisarelli.
