Nova Scotia’s classroom cellphone ban is getting positive reviews from the education minister, but the teachers’ union says messaging needs to be reinforced.
Nearly two school years after Nova Scotia ordered students to keep cellphones out of classrooms during instructional time, the province’s education minister says the policy is reducing distractions and helping students focus, while the teachers’ union says the rules need stronger reinforcement.
The provincewide policy, introduced in September 2024, requires students to turn off personal devices and store them away during class. Junior high and high school teachers may allow phones for educational purposes, and exceptions are permitted for students who need a device as part of a learning accommodation.
Education Minister Brendan Maguire told CBC News that feedback from educators has been positive, saying students are spending less time looking at phones or social media and are more engaged in class. He said enforcement issues have involved a “small percentage” of students and described the transition as easy for more than 99 per cent of students.
Student reaction appears mixed. CBC reported that high school student Ishaan Anandavaskaran said the ban has helped him learn because cellphones are distracting. Grade 12 student Asher Cartmill, however, said he is “pretty addicted” to his phone and does not plan to follow the policy, even while calling the idea good in principle. Another student, Anastasaia Kliubina, said most classmates at Citadel High School follow the rule and that students who do not can be sent to the principal’s office and have their phones confiscated for the day.
A freedom of information request listed in the province’s public disclosure database showed 4,790 recorded disciplinary actions for violations of the cellphone ban as of Jan. 31, 2026, since the policy took effect. Nova Scotia had 133,752 students registered in public schools this year.
Peter Day, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, said the ban was highly effective when it began, with clear messaging and visible support from education leadership. Over time, he said, that messaging has faded.
Day said families and students should be reminded several times a year about expectations so teachers do not have to act as “cellphone police.”
Maguire said his department has heard the concern before and would clarify or strengthen the message if needed, either at the end of the school year or at the start of the next one. For now, the province is presenting the ban as broadly successful, while teachers are pressing for the follow-through they say is needed to keep it that way.
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