Also why would teachers need smartphones for teaching purposes. Most (all?) schools have proper desktop computers to learn things like Scratch (https://scratch.mit.edu/) or Sketchup, etc.
Citation needed - that's not the case.
Schools are ran in a collegial manner (PTA + Teachers + Admin - I sit in my son's school board) What's imposed is pedagogical content (over a teaching cycle - three years long - kids should have learned this and that.) Then how it's done is really not the state's business. Schools implement it the way they want.
Schools were perfectly able to restrict use of smartphones before that law.
In fact, here is a description of schools' internal rules by the French government itself:
http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid100605/le-reglement-interieu...
I don't know why a few 'contributors' downvote comments in this thread. Is this Reddit?
You've asked this several times and it will attract downvotes every time as it's against the guidelines. People have been worried about HN "becoming like Reddit" since soon after it launched over 10 years ago.
People generally downvote because they don't find the comment convincing or enlightening.
Downvotes are less likely when commenters explain their position with thoughtfulness and effort to help the community understand and learn things.
Why is it flagged? What do i miss here?
You can vouch for it if you think the comment has its place here.
(edit I don't have the "vouch" option, so maybe the comment has been downvoted as well, but it doesn't appear grey to me so I'm not sure).
Other matters can be negotiated between the Ministry and the town council, like the number of teachers or number of classes.
What a school can decide, maybe (and provided the mayor of the town where it is located, agrees), are super trivial matters like the timing of recess, etc.