Mobile phone ban at schools: Vorarlberg discusses distraction and learning!

Mobile phone ban at schools: Vorarlberg discusses distraction and learning!

The Austrian government has launched an ambitious project: a mobile phone ban for pupils up to the eighth school level, both in class and during breaks. This measure is intended to reduce distractions and promote social interaction. Several federal states have already implemented similar bans, including Carinthia and Styria. As Vol.at , both students and parents in Vorarlberg are split over this project. Some, like Fabienne from Wolfurt, find the ban sensible because cell phones are strongly distracted in class. Florian from Bregenz, on the other hand, sees no reason to enforce the ban even during the breaks and find that this is exaggerated.

reactions by teachers and students

The call for a mobile phone ban is not new. In Vienna, people are now planning to ban mobile phones at elementary and middle schools during class and during breaks. This decision is in accordance with a trend for society as a whole, such as The press . However, legal questions have so far remained unsolved, since the Ministry of Education doubts that schools can be legally obliged to enforce such bans. A nationwide ban is therefore rather unlikely; The individual federal states handle the guidelines differently. In Carinthia, a ban already applies to elementary schools, while in Styria this was expanded until the sixth school level.

The discussion is supported by the experiences of teachers. Barbara Mesaric from Frastanz reports that cell phones are already collected in a box at her polytechnic school, but students often need two devices to avoid unwanted distractions. These challenges are also evident in the opinions of parents, some of which have a differentiated view of the need for cell phones in schools. While some require a clear demarcation between learning and leisure use, it remains to be seen how the discussion about cell phone bans is developing and what specific measures are actually implemented.