No smartphones in schools. The government adopted the bill – what next?

It's done. The government adopted a bill introducing a nationwide ban on smartphones in primary schools – in lessons and during breaks. This is 1 of the most crucial decisions concerning the Polish school for years. The regulations are to enter into force from 1 September 2026.

This is not “technical regulation”. It's a civilization change.

For years, we have allowed a telephone screen to enter a place that should defend the child's concentration, relation and development. The effect is known:

• Dispersal
• problems with attention,
• dependence on stimuli,
• a decrease in the quality of peer relationships.

In 1 of ours interviews with Prof. Jagoda Cieszynska-Rożek, published in the Week of civilian Affairs, there have been words that give a good foundation to the problem: "We should aid children make attention processes and teach them to read before they get a smartphone and a computer".

The natural order of improvement is: fun and thinking, then technology – not the another way around. A school without screens is not a ban. It's regaining control.

The meaning of this change Says Daniel the Nine.: “Forbiding is not a goal in itself. The goal is to regain the school as a place of human contact”.

Because present the school is increasingly losing to the telephone – a device designed to attract more attention than a lesson, a teacher or peer.

“The baby does not request a smartphone as shortly as possible. He needs to learn the real planet first – only then digital” – reminded in a conversation for the civilian Affairs Weekly Manfred Spitzer. This conviction should be the starting point of any education policy. For years, it's been the opposite.

Week of civilian Affairs

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Our voice – and our actions

The Institute of civilian Affairs since 2020 has highlighted the request to defend children from the negative effects of excessive digitisation of school and social life.

We have previously called for clear rules for the usage of telephones in primary schools and supported solutions that reenforce the function of the school as a space of relation alternatively than screens.

The current decision of the government is the consequence of a multi-annual public debate involving parents, teachers, experts and social organisations. It besides proves that social force matters.

It's a decision that should have been made years ago. Better late than never – but now 1 thing matters:

Whether you're truly going to take the school distant from the screens or just announce it.

Now work begins in parliament, and it is at this point that the most essential independent social facilities are needed to guarantee the quality of children's rights and interests.

We'll monitor it. Stay with us!