The State Duma clarified: smartphones will be completely banned at school

The “Law against Phones” will be held for the second hearing in early December

State Duma deputies propose to completely ban the use of smartphones in schools. This amendment was made to the new bill “On Improving the Interaction of Participants in the Educational Process,” which already passed its first reading on November 16. Previously, it was assumed that it was still possible to use phones in the classroom with the permission of the teacher, if this was “provided for by the educational program.”

The main locomotive of the project, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, demonstrates a decisive attitude towards the fight against ill-fated phones, who traditionally organized a vote of subscribers on the social network – according to his data, almost 90% of respondents were in favor of the ban. And Nina Ostanina, who reported that 80% of parents and teachers are asking to ban smartphones in schools, and many others.

It is known that the ban on telephones in schools has already been approved by the relevant State Duma Committee on Education. The first deputy chairman of the committee, Yana Lantratova, said that the final decision on this amendment will be made before the second reading of the bill, on December 4.

It was previously reported that there were no plans to take away phones from schoolchildren at all. In particular, the head of the Ministry of Education said: “The student will be in touch with their parents,” and in “the educational process, mobile devices should be used only with the permission of the teacher.” And now the new, stricter version says that phones cannot be used at school at all, except in “emergency cases when it comes to the health of students.”

“At the same time, the draft does not specify the mechanism for seizure,” comments lawyer Stanislav Popov. – It turns out that all responsibility falls on the school administration, because a smartphone is a valuable item.

It can be predicted that locally it will be forbidden to bring telephones at all, or only push-button ones, which no one has anymore. Or, as in the situation with vapes, some directors will think of searches and other violations. Not to mention something more, when a security threat, God forbid, creates confusion and delay in time: students will crowd around this very box.

On the other hand, everyone knows that teenagers and prepubescent children are maximally focused on protest. If they prohibit bringing phones or force them to hand them over in a special box before classes, children will, as a matter of principle, bring two phones to school. Or come up with hiding places where they will hide them. By analogy with the penitentiary system, excuse me: telephones are prohibited in prisons, but there are plenty of them there. We all get calls from “investigators” from Mordovia and “bankers” from the Magadan region…

“Modern children and teenagers differ from the “silent” generations to which their parents belong,” says family psychologist Maryana Razumovskaya. – In particular, because puberty has become much younger – now the countdown starts at 9-10 years.

But personal development today is later, infantile, it’s not for nothing that they are also called the generation of “snowflakes.” And of course, online life has become a striking feature of children and young people; modern children cannot imagine themselves without gadgets. It seems to me that such a decision to take and ban, in the style of past times, will be fraught with danger in schools today. At the very least, his students will not accept or understand him. Or they will protest.

Meanwhile, the bill introduced in October is in vain called the “phone ban law.” Because the proposed changes are much broader, we are talking not only about gadgets (which in the amendments are designated as “communications” and “electronic resources”). In the amendments and explanatory note, deputies also write about protecting teachers “from all forms of physical and mental violence.” On disciplinary liability for those who violate the “internal regulations” of the school. On the protection of the rights of teachers and the creation of dispute resolution commissions at schools. On additional powers for directors in such commissions, on state support for teachers and the protection of their rights in government bodies.

In general, in the Year of the Teacher and Mentor, such a bill can really be called long-awaited, because teachers are sometimes defenseless against scandalous parents and their own school administration. If only there were more specifics in the text of the amendments. And there was no talk about depriving children of “means of communication.”