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Italy proposes overturning smartphone ban in schools

School children could soon be spending their lessons glued to the screen of their smartphones after Italy's under-secretary of education pledged to overturn a 2007 ban on the devices in classrooms.

Italy proposes overturning smartphone ban in schools
An Italian education minister has proposed overturning a directive banning children from using smartphones in class. Photo: SummerSkyes11/Flickr

“Enough with this luddism,” Davide Faraone, under-secretary for education, told La Stampa.

“The government is investing heavily to digitize our schools, so banning the use of phones and tablets in class is a bit of a contradiction.”

The Education Ministry outlawed mobile phones nine years ago and since then, many other places in Europe have followed suit.

In 2009, France banned them from primary schools, while the Spanish region of Castille-La Mancha outlawed them in all schools in 2014 in a bid “to end a daily battle” between teachers and students.

Even where bans do not exist, schools have routinely chosen to forbid phones in the classroom as they strive to keep students' on task. A reported 33 percent of all UK schools don't allow phones.

The ministry's decision to reintroduce the devices comes as part of a €1 billion government push to bring Italy's schools up-to-date.

Over the next few years, the government will install Wi-Fi and ultra-fast broadband in all schools and train teachers to use digital technologies as educational resources.

The plan will have children increasingly using smartphones and tablets to do their reading in class and submit their homework.

“It will greatly benefit students with learning difficulties and disabilities, as devices have a more instant impact,” Faraone said.

“I've seen this in my own daughter, who is autistic.”

The government hopes that by allowing children to use their phones in class, the high rates of cyber bullying among school children will fall.

According to national statistics agency, Istat, 5.9 percent of all youngsters are subject to cyber bullying and the tragic suicide of a 14-year-old earlier this year led to calls for the government to introduce laws to combat the problem.

“We can either ban the devices, or we can try and get teachers to educate children about how to use them responsibly,” Faraone said. 

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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