At the end of December 2023, information circulated on the Internet that Russian students would no longer be able to use phones in schools. We decided to check whether this statement is true.

In October 2023, it was introduced into the State Duma of the Russian Federation bill, restricting the use of mobile phones in schools. According to the document, schoolchildren were allowed to use smartphones only for educational purposes and with the permission of teachers. However, by the second reading the authors tightened restrictions by removing this possibility from the text. December 6, 2023 State Duma accepted bill, on December 13 it was approved Federation Council, and on December 19 it signed Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many media (for example, "Kommersant", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", RBC, "Russian newspaper") immediately released articles with headlines stating that mobile phones in schools are now completely banned. Social media users are also discussing the proposed ban (“VKontakte", X, Facebook, Telegram).

In the text document “On amendments to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”” regarding mobile phones the following is stated: “Do not use mobile radiotelephone communications during training sessions when mastering educational programs of primary general, basic general and secondary general education, except in cases of a threat to the life or health of students, employees of an organization carrying out educational activities, or other emergency cases.”

That is, students in all classes of secondary schools, according to the introduced changes, will not be able to use phones during school, except in emergency situations. At the same time, training sessions are considered not only the lessons themselves, but also laboratory, practical, individual and group classes, electives, additional lessons, as well as clubs and sports sections. However, the law does not prohibit bringing smartphones to schools or using them during breaks or in after-school groups. Therefore, there is obviously no talk of a complete ban.

The document does not specify how exactly compliance with the restrictions will be monitored—whether students will have to hand over their phones to teachers during classes, leave them in the locker room, or simply put them in their backpacks. One of the authors of the bill, head of the State Duma Committee on Education Olga Kazakova previously stated, that teachers and the management of each educational institution, who are entrusted with the responsibility to ensure compliance with the rules, will have to resolve these issues together with the students’ parents. Therefore, it is difficult to say how the restrictions will be implemented in practice in each specific school. It is possible that in some of them phones will be completely banned, although the law does not require this.

At the same time, we are talking not only about smartphones - subject to restrictions, according to words The same Kazakova also includes tablets with SIM cards. During lessons, schoolchildren will be able to use only those gadgets that are on the balance sheet of the educational institutions themselves.

Let us repeat that in the original version of the bill, phones could still be used with the permission of teachers and for educational purposes, however, the fact that the authors removed this exception for the second reading is quite logical. The fact is that in its original form the document contradicted standards SanPiN, effective from January 1, 2021, according to which mobile communications are not used for educational purposes.

It is worth noting that restrictions on the use of phones in schools is a global trend. IN Italy, for example, similar measures were introduced back in 2007, during France — in 2018, in China - in 2021. And in July 2023, UNESCO called prohibit students from using smartphones in class everywhere. The reason for this statement was data provided by the Program for International Student Assessment, which revealed that there is an inverse relationship between excessive use of computer technology and student achievement.

Thus, the amendments to the Law “On Education” do not include a strict ban on phones in schools, which many media outlets have written about. According to the document, personal gadgets cannot be used only directly during training sessions. However, the law leaves room for interpretation: it does not stipulate whether students should hand over equipment to teachers during classes, where it should be stored, etc. All this will be decided by employees of educational institutions locally, which means it is possible that the management of individual schools may indeed introduce a complete ban.

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