Mobile phones will be prohibited in schools and institutes at all times – including recess, extracurricular activities, dining rooms… – and for all students, including those over 18 years of age. Students in the Region will return from the Christmas holidays with the ban on using their phones at school in force. The regional government has chosen to apply the veto as soon as possible, from January 8, and in a drastic way: the use of the device is prohibited for all students in regulated education (Primary, Secondary, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training) regardless of their age. That is, those over 18 years of age – a large adult population studies Vocational Training – will not be able to have their mobile phone active either. The ban does not affect teachers.
Secondary education directors, who will be the ones to face the application of the measure in the classroom, are concerned about the reaction of the students, and it is not clear to them that adults studying vocational training cannot use their device. “In vocational training classes there are fathers and mothers who write to them from their children's daycare or from work to change shifts,” explains the president of Ades, Isabel Saturno. In any case, Saturno assured that they will comply with the rule and will communicate it to the educational community, to the delegates and to the students “with common sense.”
No student will escape the veto, nor will there be spaces or moments of exception. Students will not be able to use their devices at any time or space in the school, since the prohibition will also be in force during recess, extracurricular and complementary activities, the dining room… Exceptionally, use will be allowed to students who require it for reasons of need and health. The use of a mobile device in classrooms is already an offense that is classified as minor, serious or very serious, punishable with sanctions ranging from removal of the device to expulsion of the student.
The Minister of the Presidency, Marcos Ortuño, stated that the Government Council approved the new order at its meeting this Thursday, which comes into force on January 8, and which specifies that students will have to have their cell phones inactive at all times. that is, off or in airplane mode. “Most schools have already prohibited it for a long time, and what we intend is to unify the criteria and contribute to improving school coexistence and the reinforcement of teachers.”
Ortuño explained that, in parallel with the entry into force of the order prohibiting telephones, the Community will bring together a group of experts in January, which will include school directors, teachers, families, students, technical specialists, bodies and security forces to analyze other added issues, such as digital media as a replacement for the textbook, according to age and educational stages, as well as its relationship with educational success; and will also address the security and privacy of student data, the creation of a list of software and applications that guarantee digital security, artificial intelligence, digital ethics, cyberbullying, mental health, influence of the use of devices on school performance , communication mechanisms between members of the educational community, the right to digital disconnection, training of teachers, students and families in digital skills, and health problems related to the use of devices and social relationships.
The decision to veto the devices comes a week after the regional government itself said that it did not plan to apply new restrictions until the committee of experts – which it has not yet named – ruled. In fact, the minister's proposal a day earlier for communities to prohibit the use of mobile phones was received as interference by the Ministry of Education. However, just a week later the regional government has decided to be more drastic and announce the general ban on telephones in school and high school classrooms.
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