'Treat mobiles in schools like offensive weapons'

Published on Friday 30 October 2009 21:21

MOBILE phones should be treated as offensive weapons and banned from classrooms, a teaching leader has claimed.

Chris Keates, who heads the UK's biggest teaching union, said the move was necessary because incidences of bullying by teachers and pupils using the technology was growing.

Ms Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: "We should treat mobiles the same way as an offensive weapons, and we wouldn't allow pupils to bring offensive weapons into the classroom.

"I still don't know why pupils need to have mobiles with them in the classroom. It is a problem and it is one which is distressing to teachers and to pupils."

Delegates at the union's Scottish annual general meeting voted in favour of a motion which demanded a zero tolerance policy of cyber-bullying in schools and that pupils be restricted in their use of mobiles during lessons.

The motion also demanded action on websites such as Rate My Teacher, which allow pupils to make anonymous unsubstantiated allegations about them.

Ian McCubbin, of the NASUWT's Perth and Kinross branch, said that as a guidance teacher, half of the bullying cases he deals with involved mobile phones or the internet.

He said: "There is evidence that use of technology is providing a vehicle for the bullying of staff and pupils.

Mobiles are a weapon of mass disruption and should be banned from the classroom."

Delegates heard that some pupils used camera phones to take photographs of female teachers' bottoms or down their tops to post on the internet.

Others deliberately staged disruptions in class so they could film it using their mobile phones and upload it to websites such as YouTube.

Sue Palmer, a child development expert and author of Toxic Childhood, said: "Mobile phones are part of our society so a blanket ban isn't the answer, but where it has got to the stage where it is impossible to teach in the classroom, perhaps that might be the only way to deal with it.

"But the problem is the children's behaviour rather than their phones."

Last February, new curriculum guidelines revealed plans to teach children using texts and e-mails in an effort to modernise English lessons. The idea was to use modern methods of communication to engage children.

But in May last year teachers were warned not to use text messaging and social networking websites to communicate with pupils.

A new code of conduct from the General Teaching Council for Scotland, which regulates the profession, advised against friendly relationships with pupils using technology.

Last night a Scottish Government spokesman said: "It's a matter for local authorities to ensure that every school has a clear policy on the use of mobile phones on its premises."