Mobile phones will be banned from today in all New South Wales public high schools.
While students will be able to use devices when travelling to and from school, phones will not be permitted for use during class and break times.
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The decision to ban the devices was made back in April after consolations from teachers, students, and parents.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the decision should have been implemented “years earlier” and will help students focus on their academic studies.
“It is essential to ensure that young people in particular can focus on the schoolwork in front of them,” he said.
“These mobile phones are designed to distract young people with their notifications, with social media, with gaming technology.
“We cannot expect young people to focus on their academic work, while they’ve got a phone pinging in their ear every other second.”
Individual schools will be able to choose the way the ban is implemented, whether it be storing phones in lockers to handing them in each morning.
The move will align NSW with South Australian, Victorian, Northern Territory and Western Australian secondary schools which all have introduced bans.
Queensland will introduce the ban from next year while the ACT government is also considering no phones in public schools.