Swiss education chief wants fewer mobile phones in schools

Chief Education Officer agrees to ban mobile phones in schools Keystone-SDA

The new head of the Swiss cantonal education authority would like to ban mobile phones in schools, apart from use in lessons.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

“Pupils should put their mobile phones away as soon as they enter school,” Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) president Christophe Darbellay told the Tamedia group. Darbellay is of the opinion that mobile phones are far too present in everyday life and at school.

+ Why some people choose not to have a smartphone

But an EDK report on the achievement of basic skills says nothing about mobile phones as an influencing factor. “There is a lack of scientific evidence,” said Darbellay when asked whether pupils are less able to concentrate today.

His predecessor, former EDK president Silvia Steiner, also called for a ban on mobile phones in the classroom and on the playground. However, she said in an interview also published by Tamedia last autumn that a general ban imposed by politicians was not necessary.

Learning to use smartphones

In Switzerland, mobile phone bans or mobile phone-free zones in schools are an issue in several cantons and municipalities. Most recently, the municipality of Chur announced that it was considering a ban.

The Lucerne cantonal council spoke out against this in March. The reason given was that children and young people need to learn how to deal with digital media. Furthermore, the responsibility lies with the individual schools. Schwyz cantonal council argued similarly.

A survey found that the clear majority of Swiss respondents were in favour of a ban on devices in schools. Even two thirds of 18 to 25-year-olds were in favour, according to an analysis conducted by the opinion research institute Sotomo at the end of 2024.

Adapted from German by DeepL/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. 

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail]