Are phones an essential for today’s kids or just a distraction that needs to go?
Writers Toby Young and Anila Baig debate whether we should ban the use of devices in class or simply let technology run its course
THEY may have eclipsed skipping ropes and footballs as must-have accessories for schoolkids – but debate is raging over whether mobile phones should be banned from schools.
Julia Polley, head of Wensleydale School in Leyburn, North Yorks, told parents her plan had been prompted by fears the kids were not concentrating.
The news came as it emerged a fellow head had revolutionised his pupils’ behaviour by banning mobiles and dishing out detentions to anyone caught with one between 8.15am and 5.45pm.
Gregg Davies, at Shiplake College in Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, said: “Pupils’ wellbeing has improved – being outside, interacting with peers and seeing the world around them has relieved the pressure of showcasing life online.”
But while a third of UK schools ban phones, it remains a divisive move.
Here, two writers debate whether all schools should outlaw mobiles – or let the march of technology run its course.
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YES
Says TOBY YOUNG
AS a father of four, as well as someone who has helped set up four schools, I have no doubt that banning mobile phones from the classroom is the right thing to do.
Why would a child concentrate on solving an algebraic equation when they could be talking to their friends on Snapchat, checking their likes on Instagram or, God forbid, fending off some cyberbully on Facebook?
If a teacher has to compete with the temptations of social media, their job becomes impossible.
I’m not just talking from my own experience here. A 2015 study involving 91 schools in Birmingham, London, Leicester and Manchester found that exam results shot up when children’s phones were taken away.
Richard Murphy, one of the report’s authors, says: “We found the impact of banning phones for these students equivalent to an additional hour a week in school, or to increasing the school year by five days.”
Low-achieving children and those with special educational needs did particularly well when phones were taken away, their exam performance improving by an even greater amount. For these students, it was the equivalent of an extra ten days a year.
Murphy concludes: “Banning cell phones in schools would be a low-cost way for schools to reduce educational inequality.”
Another benefit is that children are less able to cheat in tests.
We’ve all seen contestants in pub quizzes searching for the answer on Google when they hope no one’s looking. Well, that’s exactly what children do in classrooms when allowed to bring mobiles to lessons.
Yes, teachers can do their best to make sure children don’t Google the answers, but why should they have to spend their time being “phone cops” when they could be doing something more useful such as explaining the question to a struggling child?
Some parents will object to banning phones on the grounds they need to stay in touch with their children on their way to and from classes. What if they lose their Zip card and can’t get on the bus?
The answer is simple. Allow children to bring phones to school but insist they hand them in at the office at the beginning of the school day and pick them up at the end.
Or let them keep them in their pockets but only if they’re turned off. If the school threatens to confiscate a child’s phone for a week, they won’t dare switch them on.
Children spend enough time on phones when at home. Taking them away during school hours is no great privation and will mean they actually learn something in the classroom instead of just playing.
NO
Says ANILA BAIG
BANNING phones from schools sounds good in theory but, in practice, you can’t hold back the tsunami of technology. It is just not practical.
The text message is as much a part of the classroom as the textbook.
I sympathise with teachers — both my parents were teachers and two of my brothers are in the profession — and I can imagine their frustration if children are more interested in their phones than in lessons.
But, sorry to be harsh, if you cannot maintain a child’s interest in your subject, don’t blame technology.
Whether we like it or not, mobile phones are an intrinsic part of a child’s life — around 90 per cent of children aged 11 or over have them. It is how they use them that is important.
After all, phones are useful on so many levels. They get pupils to school, to start with.
There are children who wouldn’t be able to get out of bed without their mobile phones, because they serve as alarm clocks. They would also forget lessons and field trips if they didn’t have alerts on the phone’s calendar.
They might never remember their homework, either, without the notes function on their smartphone.
This is how children remember stuff — you and I had a diary and a ballpoint pen.
Mobiles offer more than just the obvious “distractions” of social media and communication.
Used correctly, they can be powerful educational tools in themselves.
Many educators are already recognising this.
Schools dole out tablets and iPads to kids with almost all the same functions as phones, encouraging them to get online and take advantage of educational apps.
Geography teachers are using Google Maps to help encourage pupils to explore the world. Zooming around the globe on a smartphone and walking down virtual streets is far better than studying a spinning globe.
The leader of one school that gets this — Kathy Crewe-Read, headteacher at Wolverhampton Grammar — sums up their usefulness perfectly.
She says: “We want mobile devices at school because they offer so much that is good.
“The average smartphone’s browsing capacity alone enables children access to as much information as was held in the fabled Library of Alexandria (in ancient Egypt), at the touch of a button.
“As educators, our role should include showing students what digital behaviour is OK and what is not OK — this is part of preparation for modern life.”