by InTrieste
Starting next school year, Italy will implement a sweeping ban on the use of smartphones in educational institutions, including for educational purposes. The announcement was made by Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara on Wednesday, marking a significant shift in the country’s approach to technology in classrooms.
The new policy will apply from primary levels through to junior high school (scuola media), while the use of tablets and computers will still be permitted, provided they are used under the direct guidance of a teacher, Valditara specified.
“I don’t believe that good teaching can be done with a cell phone until middle school,” Valditara stated at an education conference in Rome. He described the restriction as “an important step forward” to restore teacher authority and to combat issues such as bullying and violence.
The initiative has been well-received by various educational and parental organizations. Antonio Affinita, director of the Italian parents’ movement Moige, hailed the measure as a “positive” step towards addressing the improper use of technology in schools.
Valditara’s decision echoes last year’s UNESCO recommendation to ban smartphones in schools due to their distracting nature and detrimental impact on student learning. The minister emphasized this point in a post on social media platform X, underscoring the global support for such measures.
Additionally, Valditara announced a return to traditional methods of homework tracking. From September onwards, students will be required to use paper diaries or homework journals, writing down their tasks by hand. While parents will still be able to access their child’s homework online, the minister stressed the importance of handwriting. “We must get our children used to writing again, to the relationship with the pen and with paper,” he said.
Moige praised this move as well, noting that “children are losing the ability to write, which is a method of working and thinking that significantly aids in the development of intellectual areas.”
This new policy is the latest development in a long-standing debate over mobile phones in Italian schools, which dates back nearly two decades. The initial ban on phone use during lessons was introduced in 2007 by then Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni, who cited phones as a “distracting element” that showed “a serious lack of respect for the teacher.”
Since taking office in late 2022, Valditara has upheld and reinforced the ban on mobile phones in classrooms, allowing their use solely for educational and training purposes until now. This latest move signals a more stringent approach, aimed at fostering a better learning environment and reinforcing the educational process.
