“There should be order in each and every classroom,” Schools Minister Lina Axelsson Kihlbom told a press conference as she presented the new proposal on Friday morning.
The bill would ban the use of mobile phones during lessons, unless the teacher specifically instructs the students to use them for learning purposes.
Today, teachers do not have the right to pre-emptively make students give up their mobile phones unless they are actively being used in a way that disrupts teaching.
Many schools in Sweden, however, have policies in place where students are able to voluntarily hand over their mobile phone when they enter the classroom.
“Teachers shouldn’t spend their time debating whether or not a mobile phone should be put to the side,” said Axelsson Kihlbom.
The government also wants the law to make it clearer that teachers may physically intervene if, for example, a disruptive student refuses to leave the classroom.
The bill follows a series of other bids to revamp Swedish education. The government also recently proposed that municipalities should be able to cut free school funding, and that free schools should not be able to use queue time as a selection criteria.
According to the TT news agency, it is unclear whether there’s enough support in parliament for the latter two proposals, but Friday’s bill may get the backing it needs. If approved, it would come into force on August 1st.
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