Back to school
Ban the courses smartphone leaves the students perplexed
In January, the canton will extend a ban on compulsory school to gymnasiums and professional schools. Young people seem to accommodate them.
Students of gymnasiums and professional schools in the canton returned to school on Monday. From the second half, the management of smartphones will be standardized there.
Florian Cella
- A new directive will standardize the use of smartphones in the Vaudois post -element schools.
- The majority of students do not see what it will change concretely.
- Teachers are currently applying the rules with different levels of rigor.
- A digital detox program was deployed at the Bugnon gymnasium.
“What, the phone is prohibited at the gymnasium?” I was not aware. It’s not going to do it, I can’t live without my bigo. ” About to leave for a guided tour of the Yverdon gymnasium on Monday morning, this 16 -year -old girl discovers the existence of this recent directive of the Intercantonal Public Instruction Conference in French -speaking Switzerland and Ticino (Herup) that Vaud will extend to secondary level II.
Just out of the compulsory school where smartphones have been banned since 2019 (apart from specific educational activities, of course), she may have thought of greater screen freedom by winning the post-government. However, the adolescent descends from several laps by learning that this restriction of use – which will formally enter into force in late January – only applies to the hours of lessons, not to the interclass, nor to recreation and the noon break.
Formally indeed, a pure and simple ban is not possible in gymnasiums as in professional schools. Mainly because many students and apprentices are already major there. But also because for learning in dual mode, the smartphone makes it possible to ensure the link between training companies and their young employees.
“Rather a good thing”
On this start of school Monday, a small overview near five establishments of the Vaudois post -elevator seems to indicate that the lively reaction of the Yverdonnoise is rather an exception and that the measure will not have the effect of a bomb. “In itself, it is rather a good thing. What we do is useless and a simple notification is enough to deconcentrate, ”note Marc* and Martin*, two 16 -year -old students who enter the second year. “Personally, it won’t change anything for me. I did not use it in class. I do not see the interest. Without forgetting that it is our choice to be here to study, ”continues José*, also a student of 2e year.
Even under the guise of anonymity, would the great Vaudois teenagers assume to suffer from a certain dependence on their connected device? Or do they want to hide the fact that they shindy By tapping on their phone without the teachers? Because in itself, the CIIP directive mainly aims to “harmonize practices, put everyone on an equal footing”, explains Patrick Godat, director of the High school you Bugnon.
At ETML, Samuel Ruengsegger has known for a while that he has to leave his mobile phone in silence in his bag.
Florian Cella
Indeed, several years that mobile phones and other tablets have not been cited for several years during the courses within a majority of establishments. “It’s been a while since we have to leave it in silence mode in the bag,” notes Samuel Ruegsegger, 17 and a student of 2e year of polymiscanic at theEtml. “What is this new directive?” Ah, but that changes what in relation to last year, “wonder Ellie Ayacaba Ondo and Julian Buchanan, gymnasian 17 and 18 years old in Bugnon.
For its part, the teaching staff welcomed it. Logic. Director of Yverdon gymnasiumAnne Fournand thus evokes a common practice for several years. “And when we have formalized her in our internal regulations, she has not been debated,” says the one who has just been appointed president of the Conference of Directors of Vaudois Gymnases.
Disparity
According to him, few sanctions have been taken so far against recalcitrant students. Namely a temporary confiscation of the object. But was the regulations observed stricto sensu? Difficult to say … Even some teachers admit that they are more or less firm on the issue.
The testimonies of several students and apprentices in Vaud corroborate in any case this semblance of admission. “The teachers don’t care if some do not follow because they are on their phone,” says this student of 2e year’EPSIC. “Not all react in the same way. Last year, a teacher asked us to completely extinguish our laptop and we put it on his desk at the start of the course, when others simply told us to put him in our bag, even when they were surprising someone using it, “resume the two gymnasian friends of the Bugnon.
Gymnasians at the Bugnon, Ellie Ayacaba Ondo and Julian Buchanan do not see what the new directive will change for them.
Florian Cella
Anyway, the two teachers crossed in the parking lot of the Yverdon gymnasium seem to be on the same wavelength: “Admittedly, the telephone can be useful, but overall I am against its use in class. And this directive gives us a base on which we are pressing, ”notes the first. “It is mainly to students that you have to think. Finally, at the minority of them who cannot help but look at his laptop and who, for lack of attention, will lack ten essential minutes of the lesson, which will affect his results, “continues the second.
Management program
This observation, the directions obviously did it too. In the bug, we have set up a Digital detox program. “He meets a great success and not only allows students to focus better on studies, but also to get out of digital solitude,” explains Patrick Godat.
Student in this establishment, Léo sees things a little differently: “We should rather try to learn to work with the phone rather than restricting its use.”
In Yverdon, a project mounted with the health promotion and prevention unit in school for the second half of 2025-2026 goes in this direction. “We will discuss the management of screens, their impact on relations, the legal aspects linked to their use, as well as the consequences they can have on health,” concludes Anne Fournand.
*Fictive first names
Souvenir: ten years later, nothing has changed
Ten years ago, my school career projected me on the benches of the Bugnon gymnasium. Generation Z obliges: the phone was already at the center of all interests.
In terms of the internal settlement of the establishment, nothing was really different from what the new directive stipulates today. We had to put our laptops in silence and in our bags. Some were already shaking, just at the idea of being confiscated their most precious property.
I remember that a teacher let us listen to music during the hours of drawing. Not to mention the jubilation scenes when a kahoot – interactive quiz on phone – was organized in class. When its use was not authorized in an educational framework, we used kits, binders and other stratagems to use it in secret. We followed the exploits of Lara Gut, Carlo Janka or Beat Feuz at the same time as the trigonometry lessons.
Ten years ago, some teachers were deemed more severe, others more tolerant on these uses. There were those who confiscated the devices at the slightest ringing and those who pretended to see nothing or hear nothing. By discussing today with the gymnasians, this seems to be always the case. Now to see if the new canton directive will allow the teaching staff to standardize its practices regarding the use of the mobile phone.
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