Appeal to sign a law limiting the usage of mobile phones in kindergartens and schools.
Boat, July 22, 2026.
Sir
Karol Nawrocki
President of Poland
Dear Mr President,
We ask you to sign the Act of 3 July 2026 on the amendment of the Act – Educational law, introducing nationwide rules on the usage of mobile phones by children and students and another electronic devices in kindergartens and schools.
The bill is to enter into force on September 1, 2026. In public and private primary schools, it prohibits the usage of telephones during the student's stay at school, including during breaks, and during classes held outside the facility. In kindergartens, kindergarten wards and another forms of pre-school education, it is to be prohibited both for children to bring and usage telephones and akin devices. There are reasonable exceptions to, inter alia, health, disability, the circumstantial needs of the child, educational objectives and emergencies.
No smartphones in schools. The government adopted the bill – what next? Rafał Górski
We urge the president to sign this bill.
We do this with the cognition that the bill is not an perfect solution. The Institute of civilian Affairs, the National Education and Education Section of NSZZZ "Solidarność", the Free Trade Union "Forum-Education" and the Polish Teachers Association made a number of critical comments in the course of their work on the regulations. These included, inter alia, the conditions for the implementation of the law, the work of teachers and directors, the procedures for enforcing the ban and the request to supply real organisational support to the facilities. We do not retreat these comments. The signing of the bill should not end the discussion of its improvement.
At the same time, we have no uncertainty that an imperfect bill is simply a better solution than continuing inactivity of the state and leaving each institution alone with a problem that a single school or kindergarten cannot effectively solve.
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The bill will not solve the full problem
We want to say this clearly:
We do not think that the bill will solve the problem of children's excessive usage of smartphones, advertising antisocial platforms (commonly called social media) and another screen devices.
It will not limit its own usage of phones in homes, evenings and nights. It will not remove peer and advertising pressure. It will not change the business models of the platforms designed in specified a way as to keep the attention of the user as long as possible. It will not replace the work of parents, media education, the prevention of addictions, intellectual assistance or state action towards technological corporations.
The Act will not automatically reconstruct peer relations, concentration, movement, fun and reading. It will not solve all problems related to cyber-violence, recording students and teachers without their consent or the operation of informal schoolroom groups on commercial platforms.
The bill is not a meth. It is the first crucial step
The fact that he won't solve everything is not an argument for doing nothing. The law can set a frontier, establish the work of the State and supply a basis for further action.
Deleting calls cannot mean leaving blank. Schools and kindergartens should simultaneously make more space for conversation, movement, fun, reading, athletics and building direct relations. All in spirit a play-based childhood, not a screen.
The most crucial advantage: strategy solution
The biggest value of the bill is to decision distant from the existing model, in which each school had to find the rules for utilizing phones.
In practice, this led to chaos. There was a ban in 1 school all day, in another only during the lesson, and in another the rules only existed on paper. The effectiveness of the restrictions depended on the determination of the director, the pedagogical board or a group of parents willing to enter a long-term conflict.
The protection of a kid must not depend on the strength of 1 teacher's character, nor on whether a sufficiently strong majority in support of limitations can be built in a circumstantial facility. A common minimum national standard is needed.
School logged out? Defender: Ministry washes hands, shifting the problem to schools, parents and directors Rafał Górski, Sławomir Bronarz
This solution is besides expected by Poles. In a March 2025 CBOS survey, 73% of respondents supported the ban on smartphones in schools. In particular, 71% of respondents felt that uniform rules should apply in all schools. Only 25% wanted to leave the decision to each facility separately.
The latest CBOS survey, conducted for the Polish Press Agency in April 2026, showed an even higher level of public support:
85 percent of respondents advocated the ban on smartphones in primary schools, with 11 percent opposed.
The ban was supported by over 80% of agrarian and urban residents and by the vast majority of people identifying with the right, centre and left.
These results show 2 things. Poles want to limit smartphones in schools and want the work for basic principles to be taken by the state, not the single director.
National regulation provides a akin level of kid protection across the country, gives teachers and directors a clearer legal basis, reduces conflicts with parents and allows the country-wide assessment of the results of the fresh legislation.
Kindergarten besides needs protection
It is of peculiar importance that pre-school children be covered.
Kindergarten should be a place of improvement through movement, play, conversation, contact with nature, face watching and building direct relationships. It should not be a place where a few-year-old kid learns that a telephone is simply a essential component all minute of the day.
The civilian Affairs Institute since 2020 has been calling on subsequent governments to systematically limit the usage of smartphones in educational institutions. In April 2025, the Polish Teachership Union, the National Education and Education Section of NSZZ “Solidarity”, the Free Trade Union “Forum-Education” and the Institute of civilian Affairs jointly called on the Minister of Education to introduce for a trial period a common ban on the usage of smartphones, tablets and another mobile devices in nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools – public and private.
Also Manifesto Coalition for Children postulates a general ban on the introduction and usage of smartphones, tablets and another screen equipment in nursery, kindergarten and primary schools.
The current law does not full implement this proposal. It does not include nurseries and does not supply for a complete ban on all screens utilized by staff of the facilities. However, it is the first national solution to prevent pre-school children from entering and utilizing their phones.
The state must defender parents and children
Mr. President,
we ask you to stand defender against parents who deliberately do not want to buy a kid a smartphone or do not agree to usage it in school and kindergarten. Technically, parents have a choice. In practice, this choice can be fiction. erstwhile information about tasks, changes of plan, trips and class life hits private groups in communicators, a kid without a smartphone can be excluded from the circulation of information and peer relationships. Parents then face a false alternative: either buy a device and accept the usage of a commercial platform, or exposure the kid to being outside the group.
A phenomenon is emerging Smartphone exclusion – children who do not have a smartphone or do not usage corporate communicators are left out in the information cycle and in the life of a kindergarten group, class or school. This exclusion affects not only children whose families cannot afford to buy a device, but besides those whose parents deliberately restrict access to technology due to their welfare.
Kindergarten and school must not make the full participation of a kid in the life of a facility dependent on having a private device, social networking account or accepting the rules imposed by a global technology corporation.
How smartphones destruct childhood: “Parent, help!” Aleksandra Piotrowska, Rafał Górski
A kid without a smartphone is not a worse, little modern or little resourceful child. The national solution strengthens liable parents.
The limitation of the telephone is no longer an individual decision of 1 household to be translated regular towards children and another parents. It becomes a common principle.
Respect for teachers must be restored
Signing the bill will besides be an crucial motion towards teachers.
The teacher is liable for the education, upbringing and safety of children. The State must not impose more work on it and at the same time deny it clear tools to enforce the basic principles. Teachers present are frequently left alone towards students utilizing phones during classes, recording without permission, publishing videos and reworking on the Internet, cyberbullying and parents questioning the school's right to restrict devices. An effort to enforce the rules may lead to a complaint against a teacher, a conflict with a parent or an allegation that the educator exceeds his or her competence. Under these conditions, the teacher is to be liable for the concentration of students and the course of the lesson, but at the same time must negociate whether he is allowed to remove the origin of continuous distraction. That's not how you build a school authority.
Respect for a teacher must not be limited to speeches on National Education Day.
It must mean clear law, support for directorates and states, transparent procedures and protection against recording, embarrassing and unfounded questioning of their decisions. National regulation changes the starting point. The prohibition will no longer be a private thought of a peculiar teacher or an arbitrary decision of 1 director. It will become a regulation established by the State. Just passing the bill won't rebuild the authority of teachers. However, it will signal that the Republic of Poland does not leave them alone.
Brain online. Neurobiological Effects of Digital Activity of Children and Youth Helena Turk
Digital lobby cannot decide for children
The debate on digital devices in education does not take place in vacuum. Expanding the presence of digital equipment, platforms, applications and services in schools and kindergartens is curious in a immense market. large Techs, hardware and software providers, mobile network operators, as well as any experts and social organizations cooperating with or benefiting from technology business argue top-down bans, offering alternatively general slogans for digital education and screen hygiene.
The specified financing by business does not overturn the arguments put forward. But it should be public.
Citizens have the right to know who is backing an expert or an organisation that advises the government on matters concerning children, and whether the State's advisor is affiliated with companies earning money on digital education.
The impact of the lobby does not always take place in the light of a broad public debate. Part of the decision is shaped by expert boards, working groups, consultations and contacts not available to most parents and teachers. We do not prejudge that this means unlawful action. However, we point to the request for full transparency in the impact of organised interests on state policy.
A informing is the substance of screens in kindergartens. The plan of the fresh software base contained a clear evidence that screen equipment – apart from devices utilized in direct work with children with peculiar educational needs – was not to be utilized during pre-school classes.
The MEN Education Information Board proposed to replace this regulation with a much more general provision allowing the teacher to usage the equipment in a way "adapted to the improvement phase of the child" and with the preservation of "digital hygiene". The Council's position raised arguments concerning the equipment already purchased, the sustainability of the projects and the hazard of major criticism by the ministry. Eventually, a clear ban disappeared.
Screens in kindergartens. How a Digital Lobby Druges Children Karol Dudek-Różycki, Rafał Górski
This case is evidence that a clear solution to defend the youngest children may be weakened by a well-organised lobby promoting digitalisation of education. Children's welfare is scattered. The interest of the digital marketplace is concentrated, well funded and professionally represented. Therefore, Mr President, we ask you to stand unequivocally on the side of the children, parents and teachers in this dispute, not on the side of the organised interests of the digital market.
The signing of the bill must begin further action
Our support for the signing of the Act does not mean that its applicable implementation should be re-imposed solely on directors and teachers. The Ministry of National Education should prepare clear guidelines on how to proceed in the event of violation of a prohibition, retention of devices, work for telephones, wellness and educational exceptions, contact between parents and children and the rules applicable to trips. You should besides supply schools and kindergartens with authoritative communication channels that do not require from a kid a smartphone or an account on a commercial platform.
Once the rules are in place, they will request independent evaluation: checking the impact on concentration, peer relationships, violence, the welfare of pupils, the working conditions of teachers and the number of conflicts with parents.
The evaluation process should be transparent. Experts and organisations participating in the evaluation should disclose sources of backing and links to technological business. If the rules are unclear or ineffective, they should be improved.
Mr. President,
We ask you to sign the bill not due to the fact that we don't see its flaws. We see them and we will proceed to request their removal.
We call for a signature due to the fact that the law establishes a nationwide standard, covers the protection of pre-school children, strengthens parents who argue digital coercion, protects children without smartphones from smartphone exclusion and gives teachers and directors a clearer basis for enforcing the rules.
Not signing the bill won't improve her regulations. This means, on the another hand, the hazard of maintaining the existing model: uneven rules, lonely teachers, conflicts in schools, force on parents and the advantage of a well-organised digital marketplace over the distributed voice of families.
Signing the bill should not finish the work. Its liable implementation, monitoring and improvement should begin.
After six years of appeals, talks, investigation and warnings, it is time for the state to take responsibility.
Mr. President, we ask you to side with the children, parents and teachers. We call for the signing of the Act of 3 July 2026 on the amendment of the Act - Educational law.
With respect,
For the signatories
Rafał Górski
President, Institute of civilian Affairs
Signers:
Waldemar Jakubowski
Chairman, National Section for Education and Education of the NSZZ ‘Solidarity’
Sławomir Wittkovich
President, Free Trade Union "Forum-Education"; Bureau member, Trade Union Forum
Sławomir Bronarz
President, Association of Polish Teachership
Dr hab., Prof. WSKZ Mariusz Z. Jędrzejko
Institute of Psychology of the School of Vocational Education in Wrocław, manager of the technological Centre for Social Prevention
Prof. Andrzej Targowski
Honorary president of the PESEL Association; Emeritus, Western Michigan University
Prof. dr hab. inż. Jacek Koronacki
Former manager of the Institute of Basics of Computer discipline of the Polish Academy of Sciences
dr hab. Stanisław Burdziej, Prof. UMK
Institute of Sociology, Nicolaus Copernicus University
Dr Karol Dudek-Różycki
Chairman, Polish Natural Object Teachers Association
Dr Maciej Gurtowski
Expert in the Centre for State opposition Building Studies; task manager NdSII "Model of universal public service for Poland"; Academy of War Art
Dr. Aleksandra Piotrowska
Retired technological worker of the Faculty of Pedagogical University of Warsaw.
Beata Macherewska
Coalition for Children
