The French government is to ban students from using mobile phones in the country’s primary, junior and middle schools.
法国政府将禁止国内的小学生和中学生在校园使用手机。
Children will be allowed to bring their phones to school, but not allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks.
学生可以把手机带到学校，但一直到放学前都不能动用手机，即使是课间休息时间也不行。
A proposed ban was included in Emmanuel Macron’s successful presidential election campaign this year.
这项禁令是赢得2017法国大选的埃马纽埃尔•马克龙竞选时的承诺之一。
Jean-Michel Blanquer, the French education minister, said the measure would come into effect from the start of the next school year in September 2018. It will apply to all pupils from the time they start school at age of six – up to about 15 when they start secondary school.
“Sometimes you need a mobile for teaching reasons … for urgent situations, but their use has to be somehow controlled,” he told RTL radio.
他告诉RTL电台说：“有时候，出于教学目的或者在紧急情况下需要用到手机，但是手机的使用应该有度。”
The minister said the ban was also a “public health message to families”, adding: “It’s good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven.”
The French headteachers’ union was skeptical that the ban could be enforced.
法国校长联盟对于这一禁令能否顺利推行表示怀疑。
“This new announcement from the [education] ministry leaves us dubious because we’re having trouble understanding what is the real issue here. In general, we’re used to them being logical and pragmatic about things, and here, we can’t find the logic or the pragmatism in the announcements,” said Philippe Vincent, the union’s deputy general secretary.
Outside one middle school in the centre of Paris, pupils asked about the measure seemed unimpressed. “I don’t understand how it will work. Who will take the phones, where will they put them … how will we get them back?” said one 13-year-old boy.
At another school, Mathilde, 12, said: “It’s ridiculous. At my school, we don’t use them in class or during recess, so what’s the problem? If anyone’s caught using one in the toilets or at lunchtime, the phones are confiscated immediately and the person is given detention.”
Parents seemed uncertain too. “It’s probably a good idea when the kids are in school, but they can’t ban them bringing them to school,” said Sabine. “My daughter goes to school and comes home on her own, and at this time of year it’s dark so early, so I want her to have a phone with her. It’s reassuring.”
She added: “But rather than a ban, wouldn’t it be better to install a signal blocker in schools?”
她还说：“不过，相比这种禁令，在学校装个信号屏蔽器是不是更好？”
然而，最大的问题还是，手机寄存柜要放在哪？学校没有地儿啊。
Blanquer has already suggested schools could install lockers for phones, though many city centre schools have little room for them.
布朗凯已经建议学校安装手机带锁寄存柜，不过市中心的很多学校都没有空间安放寄存柜。
“Are we going to transform a school into a giant locker?” said Vincent. “I’ve done a little calculation myself: 5,300 state schools with an average 500 pupils each, that makes around 3 million lockers.”
Parents’ organisations say any ban would pose a significant logistical problem.
家长联盟说，任何禁令都会面临严重的后勤问题。
“How is the school going to stock them? And how are they going to make sure they’re given back to the owner at the end of school?” Gérard Pommier, head of the Federation of Parents in State Schools.
Education officials are now studying how the mobile ban can be put into effect.
教育部官员目前正在研究如何推行手机禁令。
“In ministerial meetings, we leave our phones in lockers before going in. It seems to me that this as doable for any human group, including a class,” Blanquer said in September.
The minister has also supported the introduction of school uniforms, but has said he is opposed to the measure being obligatory throughout the country.
布朗凯还支持引进校服，但他反对在全国强制推行。
He has also announced that each school must set up a choir before January 2019. Le Parisien newspaper said the government had set aside €20m for the measure. Government officials said joining the choir would be voluntary and a “complement to obligatory music lessons” that exist already.
