Lower Saxony: CDU demands ban on cell phones in schools, SPD against

In the federal states, the question of how strict cell phone bans should be in schools continues to be debated. Following a decision at its state party conference, the CDU parliamentary group in Lower Saxony has also called for smartphones to be banned up to upper secondary school level. The SPD parliamentary group once again rejected the opposition party's demand in no uncertain terms.

SPD parliamentary group leader Stefan Politze told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung (HAZ): "We can talk about how cell phones have no place in the classroom or that students need to learn how to use them. But cell phones are allowed in the school bag." A ban, as demanded by the CDU, is "too flat in this sweeping way".

Carrying cell phones is okay

For Politze, the fact that pupils are now dependent on cell phones for their everyday organization also plays a role. They can also be indispensable in rural areas in particular. He told the HAZ newspaper: "Whether a primary school pupil misses a train in Hanover, where another one might arrive ten minutes later, doesn't really matter. But if a primary school pupil in the countryside misses the school bus, the child needs a cell phone to reach their family." The SPD also wants to stick to its election promise to provide loan tablets for pupils from the seventh grade onwards. According to Politze, digitalization is becoming increasingly important, and the provision of tablets by the state also avoids social inequalities. At the same time, this should not obscure the fact "that pupils should continue to learn writing, reading and arithmetic". However, the implementation of the election promise is still a long way off – the funding is unclear.

At its state party conference in August, the CDU had spoken out in favor of a ban on cell phones until senior school. The red-green state government with Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens) is instead focusing on recommendations for schools, which they should use to decide for themselves how to handle mobile devices. In May of this year, Minister Hamburg spoke out against the states going it alone regarding cell phone bans and would prefer to work towards uniform nationwide recommendations.

Differently sold, but very similar rules

So far, it has become clear that even in those federal states where a particularly tough line is promised regarding cell phone bans in schools. Exemptions for the use of mobile devices are actually always retained in school laws or decrees. Just as in the federal states, which tend to promote the idea that there must be rules, but that individual decisions can still be made. Blanket demands that promise a particularly strict form of control have therefore not actually been reflected in reality.

(kbe)