School logged out? Defender: Ministry washes hands, shifting the problem to schools, parents and directors

Sławomir Bronar, president of the Association of Polish Teachers, and we talk about the consequences of uncontrolled usage of smartphones by children and young people, about digital hygiene and whether the government should introduce a national ban on smartphones in schools.

(Interview is simply a edited and completed version of the podcast Are you aware? p.Digital hygiene? Teacher’s Voice).

Rafał Górski: "The latest investigation with neuroimaging techniques beyond uncertainty shows that excessive contact with screens can neurologically destruct a developing brain of a young individual in the same way as cocaine addiction," writes Nick Cardaras in "Children of the Screen". Meanwhile, TikTok is utilized by 760,000 Polish children aged 7-12 years – this information comes from the latest study "Children's Internet". What do you say?

Sławomir Bronarz: I am not amazed that young people usage TikTok due to the fact that it is available, popular and easy, just like any another graphic communicative that appeared 10-15 years ago.

Each time, however, the question of where is the family, the parents, where is the supervision of what the kid is doing.

The computer and smartphone are time fillers that children have the right to use, but should do so under the control of adults.

You signed Appeal Trade unions for the introduction of a general ban on the usage of smartphones in schools, addressed to Minister Barbara Nowacka. What made you sign this appeal?

The awareness of the dangers that accompany a kid with uncontrolled access to social media. Unfortunately, the smartphone is not only a filler of time, but besides a small free babysitter who takes care of the kid and allows the parent, for example, to make dinner or sit in the waiting room. Already in 2020, "Teacher's Voice" wrote that this is simply a danger that lies on a young man.

At that time, a UNESCO study on the negative impact of smartphones on students and already the Association of Polish Teachership together with another global teaching organisations focused in the European Trade Union Confederation was published. Teachers talked about the request for control, as well as a debate with all stakeholders, i.e. parents, students, teachers and education authorities and institutions, in order to make a position of a kind of social contract, namely who, under what conditions, should have access to smartphones and the anticipation of utilizing them in an uncontrolled way.

This approach was part of a national debate on the availability of smartphones for students. It was besides an effort to direct this discussion towards any rational action. We talked about a ban on use, but we besides wanted to rise public opinion, showing that a kid cannot be cut off from modern technologies. And this modern technology cannot be something that will harm a young man's body.

Many countries, moving distant from smartphones for paper, are trying to say that what we have been fond of over the last fewer years is not the only good, but besides has dark sides and it is time to get back on track. The Minister's appeal was besides an effort to draw attention to these threats.

The decision that it is simply a pedagogical board or parents will decide how to usage smartphones is, in my opinion, far insufficient.

At least at the primary school phase decisions should be formalised and taken by the Minister of National Education, hence the intent and essence of this appeal.

You mentioned that the Association of Polish Teachership has been raising this subject in public debate for 5 years. In 2020, the civilian Affairs Institute besides spoke for the first time on this issue, as part of a citizens' run “Save the children!”.

How will you comment that neither the erstwhile Minister of Education, Mr Przemysław Czarnek, nor the current Minister, Mrs Barbara Nowacka, introduced a national ban on telephones in schools?

It is an extraordinary privilege for policy, especially the ministerial rank, to make decisions that should be respected, but besides to be liable for these decisions. And it seems that the fear of parental outrage and youth protests prevailed here.

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It was not long ago that a provision was introduced on the work for children and young people to usage helmets erstwhile cycling or scooters. And here it was not feared that the youth would protest. Similarly, it should be erstwhile it comes to the usage of smartphones that have a far greater, besides negative, impact on the psyche of this young man. They do not carry the danger of an accident, unless individual crosses the street at a red light, due to the fact that they usage a smartphone, but carry with them the far-reaching effects of social alienation, alienation in the family. Children lock themselves in their rooms, do not disturb parents, parents are happy that they can yet watch tv or read a book, so why take distant children?

I would like to mention here the event that took place in 1 of the schools.

The kids, utilizing their comms, started a class group. There, they utilized specified insults and insults that I was amazed at how a 10 - year - old kid could usage specified terms and could do so without any parental control.

And the parents explained that they could not prevent the children from utilizing the communicator, due to the fact that sometimes there is information about lessons or tests.

What do I do about it?

Parental control is essential since central authorities do not have the courage to do so.

After all, France, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden, Italy and another countries introduced national rules on smartphone use, so specified examples could be used. And recently, Australia has become the first country in the planet to ban social media for children under 16. In the interests of the safety and intellectual wellness of children, more and more countries restrict access to social media for children.

This political cyclicalism has most likely prevailed: I will not exposure myself to the attention of my parents, so for the sake of peace I will cede it to the level of the pedagogical council or the school directorate, due to the fact that the decision taken at specified a level will have a greater social dimension, due to the fact that it will someway integrate this educational environment.

There are any decisions that should be made at central level. In my opinion, it would be appropriate to limit the usage of smartphones to about the level of advanced school, which is that children in primary school should have definitely limited access.

Please note that teachers usage smartphones in class, but this carries the hazard of exclusion from the class team, due to the fact that not all kid has a smartphone. This is simply a thing that cannot and should not be underestimated from the point of view of the educational process.

I am talking about this due to the fact that there are teachers who usage smartphones in lessons specified as English. But what should they do erstwhile 5 students are gone? besides due to the fact that parents deliberately decided that the kid would not usage it.

When I was a kid, I utilized to carry a key home around my neck. Today, the vast majority of children “at the neck” have a smartphone, due to the fact that parents want to track where their children are staying. Isn't that absurd?

Another thing is that in my time, the teacher was a individual of large social standing, he was respected, and the parents alternatively held his side in most situations. present this situation is changing dramatically, and it is the parents who play the decisive role, and the teacher is being marginalized.

The prestige of the profession, in this case the profession of public trust, which is the profession of teacher, is mostly the work of the State. The government, while shaping educational policy besides in the context of wage levels, determines our professional prestige.

And this authority is the dominant feature of each teacher's individual characteristics. And if we realize that in a national debate, the problem of teachers arises either on the occasion of Education Day or the teachers' protest, and then the government becomes curious in us, we see that we are mostly marginalized and pushed into another positions.

Parents see this too, and they besides follow this trend, saying that if the government does not care about teachers, why should parents care about them.

On the another hand, there is much greater legal awareness of parents about the functioning of the kid in school. We have the activities of the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman, the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman. They point to the common relation between the student, teacher and parent, and this besides makes parents increasingly hostile to teachers in specified discussions.

On October 14, 2025, at the Prime Minister's seat of the Council of Ministers, Minister Barbara Nowack appealed to parents to cooperate with teachers, stressing that in many cases we, teachers, know more about children, about their situation, about their developmental conditions, due to the fact that sometimes we spend much more time with these children than parents.

Attacking teachers has become a certain customized in any environments, and we have an expanding number of parents who come to school complaining that the school is not doing what, according to parents, has been called up for, and if anything bad happens, the school is to blame.

No, the school is not an island, the school operates in the school-school parent-teacher arrangement. The parent is obliged to cooperate with the school, he is besides obliged from the point of view of the household and care code to supply care for the children and he cannot throw all matters on the school.

Returning to the main subject of our discussion, namely smartphones, parents say, “I want to know what my kid is doing at school.” But school is the safest area where a kid spends quite a few his time.

Yes, accidents sometimes happen and it is hard not to have accidents in the environment of 4 million citizens. The kid's at school from 8:00 to 3:00. all 45 minutes he changes the classroom, takes 10 minutes, 20 minutes for dinner. A parent knows that from his own experience. So what does he want to control?

A smartphone is sometimes utilized by a student in a way that violates the teacher's interest and his right that a kid cannot evidence it without his cognition and consent.

So if the parents say they want to know what the kid is doing, they want to make contact with him, I repeat, they can call the school secretariat and ask the kid what his situation is, or they can equip the kid with smartwatch, and the kid can contact her parent to choice them up from school.

Smartphone is not essential in school.

Neil Postman wrote in his book Towards the 18th Century in 1999: “I do not object to connecting school classes to the net or sharing individual computers with students, provided, of course, the school has quite a few money. It means that it pays teachers well, it is able to employment so many teachers to importantly reduce the number of students in the class, and it does not deficiency the latest books." How will you comment on these words?

This is already an ancient past, besides in the field of technology development, although many of these sentences are current, due to the fact that not all schools can afford access to technology. surely teachers are not well rewarded.

However, this quote is surely crucial besides from the point of view of what has happened in the last fewer years. In Poland not so long ago more than 2000 local government units had no broadband access. So the specified fact of having computers was mostly limited.

Sometimes the computer was only in the school office or in 1 classroom, without the anticipation of students and teachers utilizing it.

It seems to me that these words, spoken 26 years ago, showed to any degree the process to be followed, the request to support this environment, the request to solve material problems in the context of access to digitalisation in the form of both equipment and broadband, to which not all municipality and school has access. I'm certain there's been quite a few advancement with what happened a fewer years ago, but present we can say that inactive many teachers are deprived of this access, besides for material reasons, and we would like this situation not to happen due to the fact that this is our tool of work.

At this point I would like to mention to the activities of the ZNP, namely the Union has been fighting for many months to guarantee that teachers actually have the right to computer grants. Let me remind you that the erstwhile minister invested in computers for students – only 4th graders – against the position of the European Commission. These computers were meant for teachers, not students, which the minister utilized incorrectly as part of his political campaign.

The union has truly put a immense effort into making certain that the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the Ministry of Education, by the end of this year, supply all teachers who had the right to do so, an educational voucher to buy a laptop. Almost a twelve 1000 of my colleagues were deprived of specified a law. I would add that no another organization has handled this case.

I just want to stress that the computer can't be the only average to transmit knowledge. It's expected to be support, help, but it can't replace a teacher due to the fact that there's a threat of artificial intelligence.

This threat related to smartphones, computers, digitisation of school life must become 1 of the most crucial topics in the process of educating the young generation.

Postman powerfully emphasized that man, in this case the teacher, is more crucial than all this technology. little students in the schoolroom than many groups in classrooms with quite a few technology and equipment are more important.

Small teams are to see the student's needs and problems, individual approach, fast response, but besides easier control of what the student is doing on the computer, more optimal usage of equipment and what is associated with economic, organisational, numerical conditions is of large importance here.

Media reportsThe National investigation Institute wants to check to what degree smartphones are actually present in Polish schools.School heads, teachers, students and parents were invited to share their experiences in the second part of the nationwide survey. delight comment.

Smartphones are present and their number grows all time after Christmas and during the communist period. Unfortunately, this involves the basic question of where parents are.

If in the waiting area at the doctor's, I can see that a kid who is 7 years old is sitting on a smartphone, I realize that Mom gave it to the kid to wait patiently, although this time can be managed differently. But if a kid sits at a restaurant table with a smartphone and adults talk without looking at what a kid is doing, then we commit a double negligence of not controlling what a kid does, but besides giving him a bad example of how to behave at a table.

Teachers emphasize that present smartphones are in common use. They feel threatened by both physical harassment and aggressive usage of multimedia devices. It happens that students evidence teachers or distribute obscene content, which violates individual property and applicable law. Hence, the call of the ZNP to the Ministry of Education to strengthen Article 63 of the Teacher's Charter, so that the protection of teachers – akin to those of public officials – covers them not only in the school but besides outside. This may increase the safety of teachers and rise public awareness of the scale of problems arising from students' misuse of mobile phones.

I think the IBE survey will show that smartphones are in common school usage – I say they have about 80-90% of children. The older the child, the greater the rate.

The question is how the process of parental control of access to these devices takes place, to what degree they actually support the intellectual improvement of the child, and to what degree they are simply a "filler" of time. More and more are said in public space about kid dependence on digital platforms and the resulting harm to their intellectual health. There are studies showing the link between social media and temper disorders.

I am glad that you have pointed to discrimination against children who do not have smartphones, due to the fact that that is the decision their parents have made erstwhile they are aware of digital threats. These parents are now minority, disappearing in the flood of claim guardians who request that their kid have a smartphone in his hand.

Let me quote now. dispatch of the Polish Press AgencyRadio RMF FM besides said: “The Finnish Constitutional Commission has assessed that the usage of mobile phones is not a student’s right. She besides felt that the introduction of a ban or restrictions on the usage of them both during and outside classes on school grounds does not violate the Constitution." That's how the Finns approach the subject. And in Poland, any parents believe that the student has the right to have a smartphone and receive it or introduce any restrictions or regulations related to digital hygiene is an attack on the sacred property right. What do you say?

The Scandinavians are leading in specified regulations, which, among another things, item the dangers of free, unlimited access to social media.

The primary right of a student is the right to learn. And if the smartphone is to be a supporting element, then like any another device in the school it must be under the control of the teacher.

If a kid performs chemical experiments, this happens under the control of a teacher. However, if parents feel that a kid needs a smartphone at home, it is the parents’ business.

Many countries have made top-down provisions, but if we cannot afford them, let us, at least, introduce specified an component of didactics, support for parents. Let's teach them how to talk to a child, teach children how to usage social media, with all sorts of communicators, so that children are aware of these relationships, relationships, due to the fact that someday they will besides rise their children. And I would like this trial to be actually under control.

Many social organisations have this inscribed in their statutory objectives and it would be good for us to pay attention to this.

The Finns went further, considering that these bans do not violate any civilian rights. Since this is the case in the Nordic country, which has 1 of the best education despite the pandemic crisis, it is worth utilizing these models and utilizing these experiences.

You rightly stress the work of your parents, but I have the impression that, unfortunately, in the public debate, we miss out on the fact that even greater work for the current situation lies with business.

Big Techs, telecommunications companies, smartphone manufacturers supply children with these digital drugs and make them dependent on their products.

Shouldn't business take more work for what it does? For example, we have a cork fund where alcoholic companies pay for alcohol prevention, for educational activities. On the another hand, all these business related to antisocial advertising platforms (TikTok, FB, YouTube) or smartphones are not responsible.

Since large corporations have specified a immense impact on the social improvement of children, they should besides bear any work for the consequences of their actions. They cannot say, “We give you tools, and you do what you want.”

It is worth considering whether any part of the tremendous capital on the part of these institutions should not be utilized to support parents, social organisations, schools in these activities, which are to show how these devices should be utilized as best as possible.

We are talking about a process of social disintegration, specified social alienation, besides in the area of families, due to the fact that everyone on this smartphone does what they want and this household slow functions more in the virtual planet than in the real world. It seems that these wealthy corporations should be obliged to allocate any of their resources to educational, educational support, social policy support, psychophysical improvement of the kid and this should be enshrined in the legislation.

What crucial question has no 1 always asked you about the subject we are talking about, and what is the answer to it?

It's hard to remember that question. This is surely the first specified public discussion on the function of smartphones, in which concerns about the consequences of unlimited access to them are reflected. There was a run in the Senate, sometimes social campaigns occur, but so far nothing concrete about them.

On the another hand, there is simply a request for specified a discussion about the relation between the usage of smartphones in the educational process, in household life, and the dangers of this. Time for circumstantial solutions and actions preceded by a broad information campaign.

As adults, we are liable for children and if we see the negative impact of fresh technologies, digital platforms on the improvement and wellness of young people, we have a work to respond.

Thank you for talking to me.

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