Should mobile phones be banned in schools?

There’s serious talk of banning the use of mobile phones in schools. I agree that it’s not crucial that children have these devices on them at all times. As children we did not and we came out just fine. There is a disturbing trend among teenagers who use their phones to film vicious fights in school corridors and post it online.

They also film classmates being bullied in washrooms and corridors and post those too. They do it because they’re cruel and think it’s fun to watch. That’s definitely one reason that mobile phones should be banned from being brought into schools.

One of the arguments parents might make is that the phone is a way for them to keep in touch with their child during school hours; and a way for the child to keep in touch with them. If that’s the case then do they also give a phone to their toddler who’s at infants’ school? In the old days, schools gave pupils access to a landline when they needed to speak to their parents. Schools themselves use a landline to get in touch with a parent if they need to. That’s how it used to be done when there was no such thing as a mobile phone.

Some children can be a menace to their parents, their schoolteachers and to other pupils in their schools. Give them a mobile phone with access to the internet and you’re multiplying their menacing nature. Moreover, schools turning off their Wi-Fi doesn’t help either, because a lot of people don’t rely on it and buy data instead. Furthermore, just having a phone means there is an instant recording device in the child’s hands. So once a recording is made there’s nothing to stop a child posting the offending video when he or she is out of school.

But in my view it’s not just about making offensive recordings of school fights or any other incident that should stay in the school. It’s also about where else the child is using it. Nowadays a child’s attention is divided between the teacher teaching a class and his phone screen.

Unfortunately, in the child’s opinion, the phone screen takes precedence. There are many incidences when a teacher has had to confiscate phones from every child in his class. A box is held up and every child is then required to drop his phone into the box on the premise that he’ll get it back at the end of the class.

Maybe this is one of the ways in which schools could control the entry of phones. But how? Should there be an airport type of machine installed at all school entrances? But imagine the cost of such a machine for every school? It would be astronomical and, therefore, not sensible.

Schools do turn off the internet when there are extenuating circumstances. For example, when a situation at school has turned bad. Banning is just a word. You can ban anything but how do you monitor that ban? Schools saying they will ban phones is ineffective unless they can actually prevent its entry onto the school premises. Otherwise it’s just posturing.

Therefore, since data usage and the device itself can present problems, I think it’s crucial that there are parent-teacher conferences held on a regular basis. Schools need to raise awareness of the problems associated with a phone in the school, even if the harsh reality of their use is hard for parents to hear. Two deterrents that seem to work is a fine and the possibility of the child being expelled or, at the very least, being suspended from school for being found with a device. I am sure that no parent, or even child, would be happy with an expulsion or suspension on their school record. When that child applies for university, that suspension might be a hindrance to a good school.

When we were at school, our mobile phone was the school office landline. Our recording devices were notes being passed around the classroom. Our entertainment wasn’t YouTube but a magazine we picked up from the local newsagent on the way home. Things were simpler and safer back then.