Mobile phones ‘to be banned in school classrooms and playgrounds’

Mobile phones are to be banned in state schools, the education secretary will reportedly announce today.

Gillian Keegan will reveal the policy at the Tory conference today, the Daily Mail reported.

Students won’t be allowed to use smartphones during lessons or breaks in a bid to empower teachers, a government source said.

The insider added that Keegan believes phones pose a challenge ‘in terms of distraction, disruptive behaviour and bullying’.

In 2018, officials estimated that 95% of schools had imposed phone restrictions.

‘It is one of the biggest issues that children and teachers have to grapple with so she will set out a way forward to empower teachers to ban mobiles from classrooms,’ the source said.

Government guidance recommends schools have rules on mobile phone usage.

‘Schools are allowed to stop pupils using their mobiles for all or part of the school day as part of their school rules,’ it says.

But Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, a trade union, is sceptical of Keegan’s expected policy.

‘The announcement of a “mobile phone ban” is a policy which isn’t needed for something that isn’t a problem timed for the Conservative Party Conference in a desperate attempt to grab a headline,’ he said in a statement.
 
‘Most schools already prohibit the use of mobile phones during the school day or have robust rules restricting their use to specified circumstances.

‘The problem with mobile phones – addictive use, bullying, inappropriate material – generally happen at other times when children are not in school.

‘Meanwhile, the government is doing very little to address the real problems facing schools and colleges of teacher and support staff shortages and funding pressures which are making it increasingly difficult to maintain educational provision.’

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, agrees.

‘If the government introduces blanket bans that are unenforceable, this will make the behaviour crisis worse, not better,’ he said.

Emma Slater, an education consultant and ex-teacher, told Metro.co.uk:’ While there are important driving factors behind this policy, such as increasing disruption in lessons, the conversation needs to be balanced with how students are effectively using digital resources – including mobile phones – in their learning and revision.’

Slater added that schools using the educational software company GCSEPod saw grades ‘skyrocket’ as students used mobile phones to watch revision videos during break time or travelling home.

‘While the same clips can of course be watched on a school computer, the accessibility of watching such a clip on their mobile phones is unrivalled, which a blanket ban on phones risks harming,’ she said.

‘Far from preconceptions, mobile phones can also be good for reducing the effect of peer pressure, with children able to catch up on revision on their phones without others knowing and possibly teasing them.’

Among educators’ biggest concerns, a recent survey of NASUWT members suggested, are verbal and physical abuse.

A near-identical clampdown on mobile phones in English schools was announced by former education secretary Gavin Williamson in 2021.

Unesco, the UN’s education, science and culture agency, said in a report published in July that letting children bring phones to school has its pros and cons.

But overall, phones can ‘disrupt learning in classrooms’ and banning them can help schoolchildren focus and protect them from cyberbullying.

‘Mere proximity to a mobile device was found to distract students and to have a negative impact on learning in 14 countries,’ the agency said, citing data, ‘yet less than one in four have banned smartphone use in schools.’

High levels of screen time and a constant stream of notifications can have a negative impact on a child’s emotional stability.

Though Unesco said that when ‘appropriate’, mobile phones can be a key tool for distance learning to help reach youngsters from poorer backgrounds.

‘Mobile phones were also used to maintain individual support for families of children with disabilities during the pandemic,’ the report authors added.

Policy-makers, the agency recommended, should not embrace headlong technology in classrooms, given how new tech often outpaces the research that scrutinises whether it’s a good thing for children.

‘Not all change constitutes progress. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done,’ the report concluded.

While studies have suggested mobile phones be banned from classrooms and playgrounds, others recommend they not be taken away from children altogether.

The NSPCC recommends children who go out by themselves, such as walking to and from school, should ‘have access to a phone’ so they can call their parents or guardians in an emergency.

About one in four primary school pupils travel home alone, a 2013 study by the University of Westminster found.