COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka has banned students from taking mobile phones to school following the suicide of a teenager disciplined for using her telephone, an education ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

All schools were ordered to impose the ban after a 14-year-old girl - reprimanded over telephone contact with a boy during school last week - hanged herself, the spokesman said.

Another student from the same school in the capital Colombo attempted suicide after receiving a similar reprimand.

"Bringing mobile phones to school will now be considered unacceptable and teachers will make sure that no students takes a phone to class," the spokesman said.

More than half the country's 20 million population use mobile phones and several networks offer special packages aimed at students.