IT IS TIME now to introduce a ban on mobile phone use in schools due to the growing concerns about their impact during the school day.
The vast majority of schools already have policies in place regarding the use of mobile phones during school hours and are doing great work in this regard.
However, we need to take it a step further. The time has come to copperfasten a mobile phone-free culture in education.
This new initiative will advise schools to prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the entire school day.
Some schools allow student to access to their mobile phones at break times and lunchtime. However, going forward, there should be no access to mobile phones until the school day is over.
This mobile phone ban during the school day is designed to have the following
effects:
Schools already have many existing rules in place, such anti-bullying policies, codes of behaviour and health and safety policies, which are designed to protect students.
This new measure will ensure that schools are “phone-free zones”, giving students an opportunity to focus on their schoolwork, their face-to-face communication skills and their friendship building during school hours.
The use of tablets, computers and laptops will, of course, still be permitted,
provided they are used under the direct guidance of a staff member.
Schools will have flexibility about how they implement the ban on mobile phones on their campuses in consultation with parents, students and staff. Many schools already have lockers for their students where mobile phones can be securely stored during the school day.
Some schools are using electronic pouch-type systems. Other schools may decide to allow their pupils to keep their mobile phones in their bags, once they are turned off for the whole school day and never used, seen or heard.
Parents will be able to contact their children, as normal, through the school office in specific circumstances such as family emergencies or medical appointments.
Some students may have medical conditions that can involve the use of a mobile phone.
For example, pupils with diabetes might use continuous glucose monitoring with a sensor linked to their mobile phone to monitor blood sugar levels.
Where such mobile phone use is required for pupils to manage their medical condition effectively, schools will have the discretion to allow this. Students will still be able to bring their mobile phones with them during their journey to and from school, if they wish.
This initiative will have the most impact at post-primary school level, as most primary schools already ban the use of mobile phones on school premises.
Many post-primary schools ban mobile phone use during class time.
However, school principals have pointed out that it can be very distracting for students to have mobile phones in their pockets or school bags which are vibrating with notifications from social media apps such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Whatsapp and X. This can reduce students’ concentration levels and pose a challenge for teachers in the classroom.
Last year, a UN report recommended smartphones should be banned from schools to improve learning and tackle classroom disruption and cyberbullying. UNESCO, the UN’s education agency, cited evidence that removing smartphones from schools in Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom was found to improve learning outcomes.
It noted that just having a mobile phone nearby with notifications coming through is enough to result in students losing their attention from the task at hand.
One study found that it can take students up to 20 minutes to refocus on what they were learning once distracted.
The UNESCO report found that almost one in four countries have introducing bans
on smartphones use in schools, from Côte d’Ivoire to Colombia, from Italy to the Netherlands.
France bans smartphone use in schools unless strictly for educational purposes or to support children with disabilities. This new plan will therefore reduce “techno-ference” in school learning and in school socialisation for students.
There is also growing international research about the dangers of the inappropriate
use of social media by children and young people.
The US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, has stated that social media has emerged as an “important contributor” to the mental health crisis among young people.
He quotes a 2019 study that found that US adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media may be at higher risk for certain mental health problems. He also cited research in which nearly half of US teenagers reported that social media made them feel worse about their bodies.
The latest study from the Growing Up in Ireland project has found that 13-year-old
teenagers in Ireland are almost twice as likely to be “at risk” of depressive symptoms, with girls especially at risk. This is based on a survey of a group of 6,000 13-year-olds who were born in 2008.
Around 30% of them were “at risk” of depression compared to just 16 per cent of another group of 13-year-olds who were born in 1998. There has been a surge of online activity since the launch of the Iphone in 2007 and the growth in popularity of social media platforms.
This initiative will work in in conjunction with the “Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free” policy which is aimed at children in primary school. There has already been a strong take up of the voluntary agreements among parents not to buy smartphones for their children while they are in primary school.
The “Keeping Childhood Smartphone Free” policy has also been supported by all of Ireland’s leading mobile phone network operators.
Schools should be places of learning, places of friendship and places of community.
I believe that turning our schools into mobile phone-free zones during the forthcoming school year will enhance the learning and lived experience of students and staff within our schools.
Normal Foley is the minister for education.
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