The prohibition of cellular at school in Quebec is well received

Finished cellular, headphones and tablets in primary and secondary schools: this is the regulation that Minister Bernard Drainville announced on Thursday afternoon (new window).

Recommended by the Transpartisan commission responsible for studying the impact of screens on young people (new window)this measure should encourage young people to socialize more, we hope. The Quebec Minister of education also hopes that it will contribute to less intimidation and incivility in school.

On Thursday, in the National Assembly, the three opposition parties applauded the government’s initiative of François Legault.

The Parti Québécois, who had seized this question from 2023 and had made a workhorse, first praised the complete reversal of the government in the file.

We are very happy with this decisionsaid in the press point for the PQ deputy Catherine GentilCore.

The interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, who has two daughters aged 19 and 21, observed that the digital identity of young people has become in several cases most important than their own social identity.

MP Alexandre Leduc, from Québec Solidaire, is concerned, however, for the school teams who will have very little time to organize by the next school year, according to him.

To the Quebec Association of School Management Staff, we had seen more cellular being brought to school with the Pandemic of Covid-19, says its president, Carl Ouellet. The latter aims to be reassuring for parents: in an emergency, they will always be able to join their children, because In school, there are still phones.

Among the 125,000 Union members of the world of education represented by the Central of the Union of Quebec, some have fears about what the government established, according to what its president, Éric Gingras, said to here RDI. But overall, This is good newshe said.

The school, which has his role to playstill cannot settle everything, however warns Mr. Gingras. Parents also have their role to play. If the young person does not have access to the screens in school, but he remains awake until 4 a.m. with two or three screens at home, I do not think that the company is moving a lot.

On the side of the parents’ committees federation, we would have preferred that we leave a little more room for maneuver to the establishments to apply the measurement, and also a little more time.

The private sector was already doing it

David Bowles, Managing Director of the Charles-Lemoyne college, welcomes the decision taken by the government; In his South Shore establishment, cellular has been prohibited for several years, he explained Thursday in an interview with A whole morningon here first (new window).

Mr. Bowles, who also chairs the Federation of private educational establishments in Quebec (FEEP), explains that in the majority of these schools, cellular has been banished at all times for several years.

The rules established by Quebec, which also applies in private schools, is therefore well received within the Federation of private educational establishments in QuebecFEEP.

But Mr. Bowles claims that the prohibition should only aim for cellular, not all screens. In many private educational establishments, students have a tablet in class and that’s a good thing, says David Bowles.

We think we have a duty to make the digital education of our children.

The school’s mission aims to prepare young people for the society in which they will have to evolve, he explains. Numerous digital is omnipresent both at work and at home. It is therefore up to school to educate young people to use digital technology Intelligent, effective and ethical waysthere M. Bowles.

Elsewhere in the world, we educate young people for this purpose and students must may competehe continues.

Using cellular and other technological tools means for example to be able to do a search, or to cite sources appropriately, describes David Bowles.

In addition, the latter points out that prohibiting cellular and tablets at all times, including at the time of breaks and meals, has helped create a more positive climate in schools. Especially at the start of the year: it is difficult to make friends, he recalled, and the students were involved to fall back on their screen rather than socialize.

Not a guarantee that young people will go well

Emmanuelle Parent, Director General and Co-founder of the Center for Online Emotional Intelligence (Heaven), would like to remind the government that this prohibition of cell cells at school, as beneficial as it is, provides no guarantee that young people will go welland that we will assist at the end of the mental health crisis.

And another question arises, continues Ms. Parent: What will the cellular replace? Will we provide students from the tables babyfootping-pong, card games, company? Create social committees? Because, without wanting to talk about withdrawal, young people will have to adapt to this deprivation which would be one for many adults too.

Of course there will be resistance [de la part des jeunes]and you have to welcome it.

Adaptation difficult to predict

Besides, she warns educators and parents against the temptation to tell children Good! Finally! It was time that we hug the screw!

Because prohibiting cell phone in school is a paternalistic approach, she observes. We say to young people: “We know what is good for your well-being and we withdraw some of your autonomy”.

And despite the benefits that this prohibition of cellular will bring to school, Ms. Parent insists that it is abouta blow For young people.

If I have a message to school teams, to people who work in school and even parents, it is to open the conversation with young peopleasking them How they feel With regard to this measure, she advises.

Au Center for online emotional intelligenceCIELworkshops carried out with primary and secondary students have enabled Emmanuelle Parent to note that the latter welcome open -arm Tools intended to help them do without screens.

Teenagers, in particular, say that the phone is a distraction with which they must learn to live, the day before an exam, for example, she explains.

When they too often use their cell phone, teens tell us that they feel “like mard”, that they do not feel “well”.

What about intimidation?

Finally, it is not because we remove the phones of the schools that we remove the problems, concludes Emmanuelle Parent. Young people will stay connected in the evening and weekends.

The teachers know that they settle, between the school walls, problems that occurred in the evening and the weekends. We must continue to bet on education.