A large number of schools in Australia have - or will soon - ban mobile phones. Students will have to leave devices at home or hand them over to teachers who will lock them away during the day.
South Australia is the latest state to ban mobiles, following Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia. The SA ban will begin at the start of the 2023 school year, while New South Wales will follow suit later next year depending on the result of local elections, reports Mail Online.
This will mean phones will be banned from secondary schools in near enough the whole country. Devices must either be left at home or locked in storage during school hours, while lockable lead-lined pouches will be issued to students who need access to their mobile phones during class.
Those students who need their phone for translation, medical reasons, or to contact their parents or caregivers will be issued with an exemption. The ban also applies to school activities, including camps and excursions.
The ban is seen as a way of tackling cyber-bullying and student disengagement. Anecdotally, phone bans are supposed to ensure students behave better and pay more attention in class, but research doesn't necessarily back this up.
According to The Conversation, genuinely resolving issues like these in the long term is not simple. Removing one variable – a phone – cannot address the complexity needed to resolve them.
Joanne Orlando, from Western Sydney University, said: "The purpose of school is to support children to develop the skills, knowledge and dispositions needed for the era in which they live.
"Given we live in a digital era, the question we should be asking is not, 'should we ban phones or not'. It should be how can schools support young people to engage with technology in an empowered and positive way? And where does banning mobile phones fit into this?
"We need to build trust with young people and empower them with skills and positive habits to use technology well in ways that will enhance their life. Obviously, this adds more pressure and work to already stretched schools, but if phones are going to be banned, they can’t just be ignored in the classroom. There needs to be specific lessons or instruction on the issues around them.
"This is no longer a 'screentime' conversation. We need new knowledge and new education strategies if children are to thrive online post-COVID and beyond."
According to Staffordshire University lecturers Sarah Rose and Jennifer Taylor, a Bring your Own Device initiative trialled in New Zealand secondary schools, in which pupils were encouraged to bring their smartphones and tablets to use in class, found that their digital skills were improved and that there were increased opportunities for collaboration between pupils and between pupils and teachers.
They said: "School policies that ban mobile phones in schools may be missing an opportunity to involve children and educate them about responsible mobile phone use."
Calls for the Australia ban have intensified in the wake of widely publicised incidents involving students using phones to video fights.
