MINISTER FOR EDUCATION Norma Foley has today said she is working to introduce a ban on mobile phones in secondary schools. 

The move comes as somewhat of a shift from the Minister’s initial focus on smartphone use among primary school students.

In November, Foley introduced a new Government policy to encourage parents to avoid buying smartphones for primary school-aged children. 

Speaking to reporters in Dublin today at Ardscoil Rís where she was welcoming the extension of free schoolbooks to junior cycle students in secondary schools, Minister Foley said phone use isn’t as much of a problem in primary schools as it is in secondary schools. 

“We have done a huge body of work around mobile phones…I want to acknowledge the work of parents in terms of primary schools and in our schools in terms of making childhood smartphone free,” she said.

“I am now in a space where I’m looking to introduce a ban on the mobile phone at post-primary. I think we’re very conscious of the world in which we live, all studies, including, for example, the United Nations study last year telling us that, mobile phones interrupt learning in a school environment.”

Foley added that mobile phones are a cause of cyber-bulling and said even though most schools have policies around phone use they are still disruptive. 

“I meet principals who tell me the mobile phone, even though students keep it in their bag, the beeping of it is an interruption to study. It’s a continuous hum almost in the background that’s there,” the Minister said.

“So basically, I’m very clear that I think we need to establish in our schools a culture of non-acceptance of the mobile phone. So moving forward now, with the ban, working with our schools on mobile phones, particularly in post-primary.

“It’s not really an issue in primary in that they’re not used in particular during school hours.”