Italy bans mobile phones in classrooms in a bid to save writing skills

The prohibition on their use will apply up to junior high school

On Wednesday, 10 July, Italy’s education minister Giuseppe Valditara announced that he’d signed a new regulation completely banning the use of mobile phones in schools from primary to junior high levels (scuola media). What’s more, the directive seeks to reaffirm the training of classic writing ability by insisting that students use pen and paper for some of their assignments.

"I don't believe that good teaching can be done with a cell phone until middle school," Valditara told an education conference in Rome, according to Wanted in Rome.

The reality is that mobile phones have already been prohibited in Italian classrooms since 2007, even before the appearance of smartphones. However, the devices were still allowed in circumstances which were considered of a didactic value and for training purposes. The latest ban removed that caveat.

Only laptops and tablets for specific purposes in the classroom

As far as educational purposes, electronic devices will not disappear from Italian schools, however, only laptops and tablets will be used in such circumstances where this is considered beneficial. As far as smartphones go, the education minister only sees them as a source of distraction for young students.

The minister isn’t concerned that Italian kids would lose touch with electronics and digital skills, however, he is very much worried that the simple ability to write with a pen and paper is on its way out among contemporary youth.

For this purpose, apart from the ban on phones, the ministry is bringing back a past practice that had fallen to the wayside – the keeping of a paper diary or a homework journal. The latter requires students to write down their tasks using a pen. Handwriting has been shown to improve cognitive abilities, such as memory and learning.

The new rules will apply from the start of the new school year in September.