Among the students, there was greater interaction, better concentration and a decrease in digital peer violence, said Deputy Mayor Danijela Dolenac, Hina agency reports.
These are the first effects. cell phone bans in schools in Zagreb. Dolenz stated that most of the children quickly adapted to the new rules and that, according to the teachers, the school is noisier, but in a "positive" way, because the eyes are no longer directed at the screen but at the interlocutor.
At the beginning of this school year, elementary schools received a recommendation from the City of Zagreb to prohibit their use mobile phones in schools, and on October 27, a survey was conducted to see the effects of the implementation of that measure. Dolenac said that the positive effects can be divided into three parts: greater social interaction among students, better quality of teaching and academic results, and less digital violence among children. She assessed that it is "an important step, but it does not solve the whole problem".
MP of the We Can! In the Croatian Parliament, Ivana Kekin presented the Proposal for the Law on Digital Protection of Children, which would regulate the use of mobile devices in primary schools at the national level. So children can still bring their mobile phones to school, but upon arrival they must turn it off and leave it in a safe place, which creates conditions for learning, talking and socializing instead of looking at a screen. Exceptions are allowed only in case of medical necessity, as the goal is not to ban for the sake of banning, but to protect students' focus, attention and mutual relationships.
How is it in Serbia?
From 2023, primary and secondary schools in Serbia are obliged to prescribe the use of mobile phones and other digital devices in the premises of educational institutions.
In order to support schools in that process, the Institute for Evaluation of the Quality of Education and Training has created Guidelines for the use of mobile phones, electronic devices and other means in pre-university education, "whose goal is to contribute to the reduction of risks arising from excessive and inadequate exposure to digital content, ensure the well-being of students and improve the quality of their education".
The guidelines state that students should be allowed to bring personal devices to school as a measure to contribute to their safety while traveling to and from school, allow their parents/guardians to contact them outside of school hours, and allow their use throughout the school day only for students who are exempt from school policy and based on special approval from the school.
However, in the guidelines, the state mostly deals with who is responsible if the phone is lost or broken, and less with the negative impacts of using a mobile device in schools. Primary and secondary schools across Serbia have sporadically launched actions in which they forbade students to use phones or introduced a rule to leave the phone at the entrance to school. However, the mass ban was not implemented anywhere.
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