Pupils at an Enniskillen school are to take part in a new project which limits their phone usage.
Education Minister, Paul Givan, has announced that more than 8,000 young people from nine schools across the North will participate in the initiative.
One of these schools will be St Fanchea’s College in Enniskillen.
The pilot, which will begin in September 2025, will examine the benefits of restricting the use of mobile phones during the school day.
The department invited expressions of interest for the pilot from schools and over 50 were received.
From these expressions of interest, nine post-primary schools representing a range of school types and geographical locations have been selected.
The pilot will prevent pupils from using their phones during the school day.
Pupils will have a pocket-sized fabric pouch with a magnetic latch that is sealed at the beginning of the school day and opened using a special unlocking base.
Mr Givan said: “Since becoming Education Minister, I have examined the evidence and listened to the concerns of parents and teachers about the use of mobile phones in schools.
“Many are concerned about the amount of time our young people spend on smartphones and there is overwhelming evidence of a negative relationship between smartphone use and adolescent mental health.
“Many schools have a mobile phone policy which involves some type of restriction but there are often challenges in fully enforcing these policies which means phone access is still easily available in toilets, in social spaces or corridors or at breaks.
“This can lead to safeguarding and other issues when inappropriately taken photographs or videos are used to bully, harass and invade the privacy rights of others.”
Addressing the concerns that have been voiced regarding the pilot, the Minister continued: “Currently there are different policies across schools, however, in many cases there are challenges in implementing these policies.
“For the pilot scheme we wanted all of the participating schools to be implementing a consistent approach.
“The decision to fund the pilot will help to support schools and to reduce the additional workload involved with trying to develop new or enforcing existing policies. The pilot will also allow us to better evaluate the impacts of reduced phone usage.”