Government: Executive wants to ban mobile phones in schools up to the 6th grade

The Government intends to ban smartphones in schools in the 1st and 2nd cycles and limit their use among students in the 3rd cycle, making the recommendations made at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year a rule.

The measures are included in the program of the XXV Constitutional Government, delivered today to the Assembly of the Republic by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Carlos Abreu Amorim.

In the chapter dedicated to Education, Science and Innovation, the executive essentially reaffirms the goals and measures foreseen in the previous program, some of which were interrupted following the fall of the Government, such as the review of the Teaching Career Statute, a process that the team led by Fernando Alexandre wants to conclude by the end of the legislature.

One of the new developments, however, has to do with the rules for using mobile phones in schools and, in this context, the Government intends to apply “effective measures”.

First of all, the Government's program foresees the prohibition of smartphones from the 1st to the 6th year of school, that is, until the age of 12.

In the 3rd cycle, the objective is to “promote a culture of limited, responsible and adapted use” and from the 10th cycle onwards, students will have greater freedom in using their mobile phones, with only “responsible and adapted use” being foreseen.

The measures are currently already in force, but in the form of recommendations, issued at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year and whose application would be evaluated to support a decision by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MECI).

The conclusions on schools' adherence to the recommendations on the use of mobile phones in schools should only be published at the end of the school year.

Currently, the definition of rules for the use of mobile phones is in the hands of schools, within the scope of internal regulations, an autonomy defended by the Schools Council last year.