The Minister of Education, Anna Simó, qualified the statements made by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to this newspaper last Sunday in an interview in which she stated that “if there is any teaching activity that requires the use of mobile phones, go ahead , but in the rest it should not be present in the classrooms or in the patios, to encourage spaces for interaction between them.”
The councilor explained, in an interview with RAC1, that the department plans to publish an instruction to educational centers in three weeks recommending the restriction in Catalan institutes, along the lines set out by Aragonès, but will leave it to the school councils of the centers educational institutions who make the final decision for the next school year, incorporating it into the center's operating rules. “A vertical restriction does not make sense if it is not based on a prior debate,” she said.
The Generalitat, however, will impose a general veto on the use of mobile phones in primary education, which it considers should be a “mobile-free” space.
In the case of ESO, the counselor stressed that "we are not talking about prohibitions" but rather about "restrictions" that can be "validated" by each educational community, depending on the autonomy of the center. The intention is to stimulate internal debate, not to impose, as she explained.
In this sense, he recalled that some 30 Catalan centers "make use of mobile phones with significant learning." These centers follow the Mòbils.edu program, a digital plan promoted by the Ministry in 2019 that encourages “the use of mobile phones and tablets as educational technologies, integrated into educational practices to acquire the digital competence of students,” especially the most vulnerable. . This program was planned for three courses.
Likewise, Simó highlighted the importance of listening to students. The department is emptying the survey carried out on 120,000 students from 5th grade to 4th grade ESO.
Therefore, the person in charge of Education admitted that it is possible that there are centers that accept the use of mobile phones in classrooms and playgrounds, even with the recommendation of the Government's restriction of using mobile phones only for educational purposes.
The debate on the use of cell phones in classrooms has gained strength after thousands of families joined movements in favor of not giving cell phones to children under 16 years of age and asking for it to be banned in schools. In Catalonia, half of the institutes have regulated the use of devices and many of them have declared themselves “mobile-free centers.”
The main family association, aFFaC, considers that Simó is evading its responsibilities by not making a decision and demands “clear regulations, made with pedagogical criteria and applicable to all centers”, so as not to generate differences and favor segregation. A single criterion is also what the school councils of the different territories have requested, especially the teaching sector.
Last Friday, the Catalan Pediatric Society published an extensive document in which it warns of the impact that the digital environment is having on the health of minors, from the youngest to adolescents, and the need to correct it to promote their well-being. .
The recommendations on use in schools do not express any “prohibition”, but maximum regulation is recommended and the de facto suppression of the presence of the telephone in classrooms and playgrounds is suggested. And it is extended to extracurricular classes or educational leisure time.
“We recommend that the use of mobile phones in educational centers and non-formal education environments be done exclusively for specific educational purposes or for health reasons,” the statement indicates. "This measure aims to promote healthy development, a decrease in emotional distress and mental disorders, a decrease in cyberbullying and not interfere with learning."
