Overview

• The Realschule in Kempten requires students to deposit private smartphones in gray storage boxes during school hours as part of a pilot ban.
• Research from the University of Augsburg found that the box-storage system corresponded with reduced stress levels and improved concentration among students.
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s Education Ministry recommended that students in grades one to nine not use private phones at any time during school operations with defined exceptions.
• The ministry specified that digital lessons should rely solely on school-provided devices and that private phone use may be allowed for grades ten to twelve under set times and zones.
• Critics argue that outright bans risk sidelining media literacy education and highlight the uneven costs and policies stemming from Germany’s decentralized school regulations.