France is trying to build a school day free of mobile phones, extending the ban to high schools starting with the new academic year. The measure covers roughly two million students aged 15 to 18 across 3,700 schools and adds to restrictions already in place since 2018 for primary schools and middle schools.
Emmanuel Macron defended the decision in particularly firm terms during a visit to Chaptal high school in the southern French town of Mèze, marking the start of the school year. To show the rule isn’t just for students, he revealed that he applies a similar practice at the Élysée Palace.
“When I call meetings, I ask that phones stay outside the room. That applies even to cabinet meetings,” the French president said.
Macron argued that a phone-free school is essential to restoring calm in the classroom and to limiting young people’s constant exposure to screens and social media. As he pointed out, when students spend even their breaks each staring at their own screen, they don’t communicate or socialize the same way.
Rolling out the ban, however, isn’t expected to be immediate or uniform. Each high school must amend its internal rules through its governing board and decide where devices will be kept, who will enforce the measure, and what exceptions will apply.
School principals and teachers’ unions warn that adjusting could take weeks, or even months. Many high schools use mobile apps for class schedules, school announcements, or access to educational services, and special arrangements are needed for vocational school students and for medical cases.
France’s move is part of a broader European push to limit phones in schools. According to a report prepared for the European Commission, 13 EU countries, including Greece, ban phones for the entire school day, while others have opted to restrict use only during class time.
The trend has now gone global. UNESCO estimates that 114 education systems now have some form of national ban, up from fewer than a quarter of countries in 2023.
The hard part for France, then, isn’t just getting phones out of classrooms. It’s proving that the ban can actually be enforced, rather than becoming just another rule that exists on paper but gets ignored in practice.
