Mexico’s education ministry prepares national plan to restrict phones in primary and secondary schools

Mexico’s Education Secretariat is preparing a national agreement to keep mobile phones and other digital devices out of primary and secondary schools, after more than 565,000 teachers took part in a consultation.

Mario Delgado, the education secretary, said 81% of participating teachers supported establishing rules. He announced the plan during a regional forum at the Autonomous University of the State of Quintana Roo focused on the effects of screens on children, adolescents and young people.

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We will have a national agreement on rules for access to cellphones. For now, we will go no further than rules for access to cellphones and screens in schools.

Under the proposal, primary and secondary students would not use digital devices at school. If an exception allowed a student to bring a device onto campus, it would have to remain stored throughout the school day.

Upper-secondary schools would set their own rules because devices are used more frequently for educational activities at that level. Delgado said every school would still need guidelines. Universities would not face restrictions imposed by the education authorities, since most students are adults, but the ministry would encourage institutions and students to establish their own agreements.

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Universities are made up of adults, so the authorities cannot impose some kind of restriction, but we will invite universities to establish their own agreements with students and set certain guidelines.

Seventeen Mexican states already have some form of regulation governing devices in schools, Delgado said. He also cited UNESCO figures showing that more than 114 countries have adopted rules related to phones, platforms and social networks in education.

Delgado said the policy should place children’s best interests first and go beyond outright bans. “We cannot just prohibit or impose measures in a rigid way. It is a collective process of building awareness that leads us toward a culture and digital citizenship where artificial intelligence does not replace critical thinking, where technology remains our tool instead of turning us into its slaves,” he said.

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We cannot just prohibit or impose measures in a rigid way. It is a collective process of building awareness that leads us toward a culture and digital citizenship where artificial intelligence does not replace critical thinking, where technology remains our tool instead of turning us into its slaves.