French high schools scramble to work out rules as phone ban takes effect

The new school year starts on Tuesday in France, and with it comes a new rule: mobile phones will no longer be allowed in high schools. The ban came into force a week before the first day of term, leaving schools with little time to work out how to put it into practice. Issued on: 30/08/2026 - 14:56 3 min Reading time The government confirmed last Monday that the ban would take effect from the start of the new school year on Tuesday, 1 September. Parliament adopted the measure in July as part of legislation aimed at restricting social media access for children under 15, although that part of the law was censured by the Constitutional Council. President Emmanuel Macron nevertheless decided to put the phone ban in place. "Protecting children from the harmful effects of screens can no longer wait,” he wrote on social media. “A school without phones is regaining the ability to learn peacefully.” But head teachers are warning that implementing the ban will be difficult with so little time to prepare. Top French court scraps social media ban for children under 15 'Impossible situation' A ban on the use of phones in primary and middle schools has been in effect since 2025, but in high schools it has until now been up to individual schools to control their use using their own regulations. The ban requires a change to these regulations, meaning schools' governing councils have to meet – something that could not be done during the summer holidays. Audrey Chanonat, head teacher at a high school in Poitiers and secretary of the SNPDEN, France’s main union representing public school directors, told RFI: “It puts us in a completely impossible situation." Schools will have to decide where – if anywhere – phones can be used, and how they will enforce the new rules. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said on Monday in an interview with local newspapers that phones “must be turned off and put away in bags or lockers" – but did not give further details. "Will this mean that mobile phones are allowed only in certain places, like parts of the recreation yard? Will it require purchasing signal jammers?" Chanonat asked. Podcast: French song's popularity abroad, screens in school, France's Nobels Exceptions There is also the issue of cost. Special pouches for students to store phones cost around €15 each – a substantial outlay for schools with hundreds or even thousands of students. The ban “means financial and human resources, and for now we have received absolutely nothing," Chanonat said. There are also situations in which pupils need access to digital tools to consider. French high school pupils use Pronote, an app for checking homework and schedule changes. Some teachers use phones in lessons for research, exercises or sharing documents. Geffray said there would be exceptions to the ban, notably for pupils with disabilities. There could also be exceptions “if, for example, the phone is used to pay for a meal in the canteen, or for educational purposes”. “It might have been a good idea for the ministry to consider the role of digital technology in education,” Agnès Andersen of the ID-FO, an independent union representing head teachers, told the AFP news agency. French children spend 10 times longer on screens than reading, study finds Wider issues Christelle Kauffmann is one of the few school directors who prepared for the change by convening a school administration meeting before the summer break, to incorporate the mobile phone ban into the school’s internal regulations. Phones will be banned in the corridors and buildings of her school in Albi, southwestern France, from the start of term, but students will be allowed to use them outside. Even so, Kauffmann, doubts the rules can be fully enforced everywhere. “I cannot put a supervisor behind every student, and it is certain that, even with permitted areas, enforcing the ban won’t be easy," she told Le Parisien newspaper, anticipating that pupils will take any chance they can to leave classrooms or hide in the toilets to look at their phones. The SNPDEN is advising head teachers not to rush to put the ban in place, as it could take up to a year before it is fully implemented in all high schools. The education minister has already promised some flexibility and extra time for schools to discuss how the measure should work, Andersen said. Kauffmann also warns against expecting the ban to solve the wider problems seen among pupils of social media addiction, plagiarism and sleep deprivation, telling AFP: "There is a real issue around how these devices are used, but just because you ban them in high schools will not mean all the problems are solved." With AFP and partially adapted from this report by RFI's French service.