No phones in primary schools. OUR triumph – parents, teachers and the Institute of civilian Affairs!

instytutsprawobywatelskich.pl 1 month ago

On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Olsztyn, education minister Barbara Nowacka made a statement: "At the ministry we are just finishing work on a major legislative change, very crucial for schools, which will origin us to introduce a ban on mobile phones in primary schools from 1 September 2026," she said. She added that the decision was accelerated after talking to Prime Minister Donald Tuski.

Sounds good. But let's take this prediction down as factors one. Let us start with this acceleration, with which the activities of the Ministry of National Education (MEN) have small in common. This is no sprint of our country. This is simply a country that, after years of delay, tries to sale a late reaction to Poles and Poles as a large and brave breakthrough.

The fact is much simpler. The ban on digital drugs in schools was not born in the cabinet of the Minister of Education today. He didn't show up abruptly after 1 conversation with the Prime Minister. In Poland it was raised much earlier – by any parents, teachers, experts and NGOs.

The civilian Affairs Institute first raised the request of call-free schools as part of the “Save Children!” campaign.

As early as July 2020, we collected signatures for a petition to turn off smartphones in schools. We pointed out that this was not only about alerting parents and teachers, but besides about putting force on the government. These were times erstwhile all criticism of screens was ridiculed, and digitalization was treated as a dogma that must not be undermined. These were times erstwhile the state preferred to pretend that the problem could be diluted in the statutes of individual schools.

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At the same time, another mainstream NGOs (and their “experts”) who publically declared the protection of children carried out “social” campaigns together with the godmothers. Together with corporations specified as TikTok, Facebook, Google, Samsung or Orange, dealers who are keenly curious in the addiction of us, especially children, to digital cocaine: screens, antisocial advertising platforms (called colloquially "social media") and Wi-Fi. Examples: “Oversight of screens harms kid and family”, ‘Young heads’, "Family Guide to the Digital World".

Then came the Institute's next activities on the subject of the school ban. In July 2023 we addressed the then Minister of Education, Indigenous Black, an open letter about the school ban. In February 2024 We called on Barbara Nowacka and Krzysztof Gawkowski, in turn, to introduce uniform principles of "digital hygiene". 4 months later, in June, MEN returned to us with the answer in which he proposed, alternatively of changes in law, half-measures. Not discouraged, in December 2024 we again appealed to Minister Nowacka for a national ban. In April 2025, together with trade unions We demanded a nationwide ban for a trial period. It's never been and inactive isn't a one-time deal. This is simply a several-year, consistent civic work.

MEN changes the narrative

And that is the most “hit” in today's ministry narrative. The Ministry of National Education is acting like it's only now bravely beginning the subject. Nope. MEN alternatively closes it with a fewer years slip. Over the years, power has been hiding behind a convenient alibi: that everything can take out schools with parents and students, that it is adequate to make “digital competence”, teach “digital hygiene”, alternatively of putting in place hard rules. By the way, how many of you teach your children the hygiene of drinking or smoking and the ban on selling them to minors is considered rape on the loose?

The government, all these years, refused to take work and at the same time flirted at meetings with the heads of Google, Microsoft or OpenAI.

The Institute has long spoken directly: national, top-down regulation is needed. Meanwhile, schools were left alone with conflicts, parental force and the chaos of legal interpretations. The government washed their hands. Today, the same government repeats what civilian organizations specified as the Institute and part of the teaching community said earlier – only more cautious, later and little honest. We've all lost any good years. Our children lost a fewer good years. Will they lose more?

You gotta say it without beating around the bush. School screens are not natural and neutral technology: they are tools to facilitate violence, hatred and worst – suicide.

Thanks to the screens, greedy business makes billions on children, By treating them as biomassAnd their addiction like a business model.

And finally, the screens present fool the children, and the stupid ones are easier to rule, regardless of organization colors.

Scientific studies confirm that excessive usage of smartphones reduces concentration, worsens sleep, increases the hazard of depression and increases peer violence. This is not an opinion — it's hard data.

It is worth noting here that the Institute has never brought this problem to the simple slogan "pronounce and after the case". From the beginning we have shown a broader picture: technology education, digital taxation on corporations, individual work of each of us. It's crucial due to the fact that the ban itself won't solve everything. It is simply a essential beginning, but only a beginning.

Your force makes sense.

The Institute of civilian Affairs has for years not only alerts and mobilizes Poles and Poles, but besides builds expertise (hundreds of articles, interviews, podcasts in the Week of civilian Affairs), collects allies (Coalition for Children), runs a run (which serves the interests of citizens and not the interests of corporations, shows examples from another countries and reminds that the stakes are not abstract "digital competences", but health, improvement and everyday life of children. Children, our future. This occupation was never fashionable or comfortable. She's frequently been, and it's against the current. All the more reason to remind her honestly today.

The declaration by Minister Nowacka should so not be presented as a triumph of ministerial persuasion. It wasn't the department that beat the problem. This problem yet caught up with the resort. And along with him, he caught up with all those who had been moving distant in half-measures for years, procedural excuses, and the slogans about digital hygiene treated as a substitute for real regulation.

Yes, digital hygiene is needed – especially for adults, and for children a national ban on access to digital drugs is needed.

If the ban actually enters into force from September 1, 2026, it will not be the beginning of history. It'll be her delayed start. Falstart, which will only confirm that civic force makes sense that we were right before the government was ready to admit it. And finally, that without the stubbornness and opposition of parents, teachers, experts and social organizations, the power would inactive pretend that there was no problem.

So the most honest thing would be to reverse today's narrative. This ministry adds up years later to the bottom-up work done by the civilian Affairs Institute and another social organisations.

Important attention to the end. Nowacka announced that MEN would ban the usage of phones in simple schools, but the method way of enforcing it will leave schools. As she said, “ministery will not impose what schools gotta do with phones due to the fact that it is their autonomous decision.” And that's where there are more conflicts, ambiguities and controversy. And there is simply a solution to that challenge. May I remind you that in a public consultation, the Institute of civilian Affairs proposed a complete ban on telephone calls to schools. Like alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine. Hands up, who doesn't remember that we all went to school without a telephone in our hand.

Preschool without screens!

No illusions, no naivety, no fantasy. Digital madness is just getting started. The greed of corporations and their shareholders grows in an avalanche way. Lobby large business won't quit that easily.

This can already be seen from the example of the withdrawal of MEN from the full ban on the usage of screens and interactive boards in kindergartens. It is simply a scandal that the state has for years been allowing three-year-olds to be put in front of the screens in facilities to watch over the safety of the youngest. Time for the Citizens’ run “Save Children. Let us reconstruct the kindergarten without screens!’ shortly fresh information from this front section.

Thank you for being with us.

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