UNESCO calls for ban on smartphone use in classrooms

'Only technology that has a clear role in supporting learning should be allowed in school," UNESCO stated in a recent report about the use of smartphones in classrooms.

UNESCO is pushing for classrooms around the world to ban smartphone use, arguing that the devices distract from learning, are bad for students’ mental health and well-being and come with a host of privacy concerns for young people’s data.

The recommendations come from the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report published Wednesday, which analyzed global policies on technology use in classrooms and a host of studies about how screens and social media impact young people.

“Only technology that has a clear role in supporting learning should be allowed in school,” the United Nations agency for education and science stated.

The report found that one in four countries have already enacted full or partial smartphone bans. In Bangladesh and Singapore, smartphones are banned in classrooms but not in schools completely. In France, smartphones are used strictly for teaching purposes or to support children with disabilities.

Studies in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom cited in the report found that students’ learning outcomes improved when phones were removed from the classroom, especially for students who were already struggling.

With unfettered access, smartphones can wreak havoc on students’ attention and distract from learning, UNESCO argues.

“Incoming notifications or the mere proximity of a mobile device can be a distraction, resulting in students losing their attention from the task at hand,” the report reads, adding that one study showed it can take students up to 20 minutes to refocus on learning once their attention was drawn away.

This is a phenomenon we’ve known for a while. In a 2017 paper titled Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity, scientists demonstrated that the closer a smartphone was to a student, the worse they performed on a test. Students who were asked to leave their phone in another room performed best, students who kept their phone in their pocket or bag had middling results, and the students who had their phones on their desk performed worst.