Back to school: Emmanuel Macron expected in Lozère to discuss mobile phones and teacher training

Emmanuel Macron will travel to Mende, in the Lozère region, on Tuesday for a back-to-school trip, the last of his second term. The President will visit the Chaptal high school, where he is scheduled to meet with students and members of the teaching staff. Discussions will focus in particular on extending the ban on cell phones, already in place in middle schools for several years, to high schools.

This generalization comes within the framework of the law dedicated to protecting minors from social media, promulgated on Tuesday by the President of the Republic. Emmanuel Macron intends to continue his policy of limiting young people's exposure to screens, even though the Constitutional Council struck down the central provision of the text which aimed to prohibit access to social media for those under 15.

Teacher recruitment at the heart of the move

The president will then visit the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier's Mende campus. This second stop will focus on the reform of initial teacher training, presented by the Élysée Palace as one of the key commitments of the second five-year term. Faced with persistent recruitment difficulties, the competitive examinations for becoming a teacher have been moved to the end of a bachelor's degree (three years of higher education), whereas previously they were only accessible after a master's degree (five years of higher education).

The government hopes this will attract more candidates and allow future teachers to prepare for their profession more gradually, with remuneration during their master's degree years. The stakes remain high for the national education system: more than 2,600 teaching positions were still vacant in 2025. In Mende, Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to meet with students preparing for the primary school teaching certification exam, as well as the first successful candidates from the new competitive examination system.