“Ban cell phones in school? The Greeks show the way!”, is the title of an opinion article published in today’s issue of the Austrian newspaper “Der Standard” and refers to the ban on mobile phones from students in schools introduced by the Greek government at the beginning of the current school year.

“In Austria we get confused, every school has its own rules. Why?”, asks the columnist and refers to his personal friend from Greece, an IT specialist, who currently works as an advisor to the Minister of Education Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

According to the consultant, this measure is the most popular of the ministry and, according to surveys, it receives over 80% support from the citizens.

“The regulation applies everywhere and uniformly. In Austria we get confused, each school with its own rules. Are the Greeks achieving what still seems like a distant dream in Austria?”, says the editor characteristically and continues, analyzing Greece’s effort for the digital transition.

“The country is fully committed to digitization in its education reform and wants to make extensive use of artificial intelligence and electronic (distance) education (E-learning). The Greek minister can obviously distinguish the problem of distraction caused by mobile phones under the desk and the opportunities of digital education in the classroom”, notes the columnist of Der Standard and argues that smartphone-free schools are needed. “In my penultimate column I argued why smartphone-free schools are needed. Then, I didn’t want to sit idle and contacted our school’s administration to lobby for a ban, unfortunately without success. The impression I got from my e-mail: People avoid alleged conflicts with parents and youth. The response of many readers of my text was more positive,” he explains.

In some schools in Austria, however, the introduction of a strict ban on mobile phones went so smoothly that even principals were surprised by how grateful parents were for the measure. At school e.g. of Neusiedl am See mobile phones remain in the student’s school bag or locker. If there is a violation, the phone remains in the “mobile parking lot”, in the conference room. In case of repeated violations, the management requires the parents to pick up the phone from the school. At the high school in Klosterneuburg, the ban on the use of mobile phones is even advertised on the school’s website.

The columnist even refers to an initiative of parents in Britain, under the title “Smartphone Free Childhood”. Parents compile directories of cell phone-free schools, coordinate regional discussion groups and provide informational materials to schools. “The movement has found imitators in various European countries, unfortunately not in Austria,” writes the editor. According to him, a reader recommended him Scottish author Johan Harry’s book Stolen Concentration: Why You Can’t Focus, which argues that our collective ability to focus is steadily declining and that constant distraction through of digital technologies and the way we use social media drastically limit our attention spans. “Our cognitive performance has decreased by up to 30%. Doesn’t this constitute a problem for society as a whole? What does this constant distraction do to us, our social relationships and our lives? Shouldn’t we rely on ‘speech instead of reel’, ‘discussion instead of scrolling’ and ‘friends instead of followers’?” concludes the columnist, transferring the slogans from the Klosterneuburg school’s website