Smartphones: an outright ban in all colleges in France by the start of the 2025 school year

The smartphone has been the target of the Ministry of Education for several months, particularly for its negative impact on concentration and social interactions. The start of the 2024 school year thus introduced the concept of digital breakforcing college students to leave their devices at the entrance to their establishment, whether in a box or a dedicated locker.

Tested in around 180 French colleges, the system seems to be working for the best. Alexandre Portier, Minister Delegate in charge of academic success, reported this Friday, October 25 on Cnew/Europe 1 of “good feedback” from the establishments taking part in the experiment.

The digital break “allows young people to be fully invested in this learning time”he added. Alexandre Portier underlines in passing that academic success cannot be achieved without a climate “totally dedicated to learning”thus justifying the usefulness of this directive.

With this new system, the Minister for Academic Success explains that it is responding to a “national emergency” for the health of young people, “a mission in which we have no right to fail”.

We learn in passing that the government is doing everything possible to ensure that the experiment extends to the whole of France “at the latest” at the start of the 2025 school year. In itself, this would mark a delay compared to the generalization mentioned by the former Minister of National Education last September, Nicole Belloubet, who was planning on the month of January 2025.

“Since then, his successor, Anne Genetet, has pleaded at the beginning of October to leave a “form of autonomy” to school heads on this subject”reports Le Monde. The choice of September 2025 for the start of the school year should therefore give colleges time to prepare their own digital break system, best suited to their organization.