Education Minister Claude Meisch on Thursday announced a new policy to ban smartphones in primary schools and state-run drop-in centres after Easter, citing concerns over the negative impact of excessive phone use among children.

While the exact details of this plan are still to be worked out, the detrimental effects of excessive smartphone use among children are not to be underestimated, Meisch noted.

The ban will also be instituted in the state-run drop-in centres, commonly known as 'maisons relais'.

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As for secondary education, the minister explained that smartphone use during class should also be eliminated. However, he acknowledged that schools will be free to work out their own concepts and approaches, ultimately allowing them to ban devices altogether.

A final announcement made at the back-to-school focused briefing was that the optional French literacy programme, currently still in a pilot phase, is to be made available country-wide by the 2026/2027 academic year.