Tel Aviv schools to ban smartphones starting in September
‘We won’t let technology control us,’ vows longtime Mayor Ron Huldai, saying schools must ‘allow children to have simple moments with each other’
Smartphones will be banned from schools in Tel Aviv starting in September, mayor Ron Huldai said on Thursday.
“We won’t let technology control us -– we are removing smartphones from schools,” Huldai, who has been mayor since 1998, said in a statement.
“My dream is that we will succeed together in pushing ourselves and our city’s educational system forward, out of our comfort zone, and that we will relearn the importance of attention and be fully present in the right place and at the right time,” he said.
Several dozen elementary schools and at least three high schools have already begun reducing smartphone use during school hours, the statement said.
Under the plan, smartphones will be removed completely from all educational institutions in Tel Aviv when the new academic year starts in September.
Huldai said that while innovation was a “fundamental part of life in Tel Aviv… we also want to allow children to have simple moments with each other.”
“Our goal is to create a distraction-free learning environment that fosters higher achievements and stronger social bonds,” he said.
Tel Aviv is not the first place to seek a broad ban on smartphones in schools.
Last month, Denmark’s education minister said a bill would be put to parliament soon to ban mobile phones and personal tablets in schools. Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said “screens are robbing many of our children their childhood.”
Brazil, which has more smartphones than people, also moved to ban devices in schools earlier this year.
UN culture and education body UNESCO said that at the end of 2024, 40 percent of education systems around the world had some sort of ban on smartphone use in schools, up from 30% a year earlier.
