The State Duma approved in the first reading the ban on smartphones in school lessons

At a plenary session, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill to limit the use of telephones in Russian schools. The bill, as previously reported by Kommersant, was introduced in October by a group of deputies and senators of different factions and proposes a ban on schoolchildren using mobile phones for personal purposes during lessons. The day before, the bill was supported by the Education Committee.

“Today, in the process of learning, a student forgets about the subject and sits on the phone during lessons, not mastering the program,” says deputy Saygidpasha Umakhanov (ER). “Add to this the cyberbullying that hundreds of schoolchildren, and sometimes teachers, are subjected to every year. The ban on phones will only apply to classes—students can use devices during breaks.” The mechanism for using smartphones outside of school hours and the rules for storing them during lessons should be worked out “so as not to burden the school with proceedings regarding missing and damaged phones, and especially not to burden teachers with this,” the deputy believes. He notes that the current project affects “the rules of student behavior and improves the status of the teacher.”

In his opinion, by the second reading the bill should have additional rules eliminating “the disproportion in the legal status of teachers and students in terms of respect for human dignity.” Mr. Umakhanov referred to sociological studies conducted with the participation of the Pedagogical Council portal, from which it follows that “almost 70% of teachers were bullied by students.”

“The permissiveness of recent years and the constant use of smartphones have a bad effect on the discipline of schoolchildren,” says deputy Anatoly Bifov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). “The bill spells out regulations for the use of communication means. The student will be allowed to use a smartphone when it is provided for in the educational program, as well as in emergency cases involving a danger to life or health. In other cases, any phones that children have should not distract them from their lessons.”

One of the authors of the bill, Chairman of the Duma Committee on Education Olga Kazakova (ER), explains that schools themselves will decide how the ban on smartphones will be implemented in practice: “Will gadgets be stored in lockers, in boxes, in tables, in briefcases, or in general? the school will not be brought, parents and teachers will decide.” Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov previously emphasized that parents will remain in touch with their children, but during lessons, schoolchildren will be able to use phones only with the permission of the teacher.

Read more about the ban on smartphones in the Kommersant publication “Teacher’s Call”.