Nine reasons why smartphones should be banned in schools

If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. We should add to this rule a similar one that states if something seems too daft to be true, it probably is. The notion that there is any kind of net gain in allowing children access to mobile phones in school is too daft to be true.

Let’s begin with the concern that perhaps first comes to mind for some parents: What if we need to get hold of wee Johnny or Jenny in an emergency? We can be certain there will be particular reasons cited why these parents are more likely than others to need immediate access to their children.

And we can be equally certain that the school – having given in to wee Johnny’s perhaps rather forceful parents – will have to extend the same provisions to all other pupils. There is a simple solution. Parents should be told that if they need to contact their child they should call the school, like grown-ups did before the rise of the mobile phone.

Growing numbers of parents and teachers appear to be coming round to the idea that mobile phones should be banned in schools (Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Then there is the argument seldom used by teachers but often advanced by those who fancy themselves as amateur educationalists. “It’s not like it was in our day, we have to move with the times, mobile phones are part of life now, we have to fully embrace new technology so children can learn how to use it” etc etc.

Literacy and numeracy

Children don’t learn how to use phones, laptops or tablets at school. They are probably more familiar with these things than their teachers. They will leave school fully capable of operating the devices whether they have access to them during school hours or not.

At the risk of sounding stuffy and old-fashioned, classrooms should be places where children learn those boring old skills that will stand them in good stead later in life, such as literacy and numeracy. In this, evidence tends to suggest phones are a hindrance rather than a help. They are a constant distraction that prevents children from concentrating and leads to bad behaviour.

The teacher behind the push to ban mobile phones in Scotland schools and follow England policy

But there are signs of a growing resistance. Back in 2017, Gordonstoun, the King’s alma mater in Moray, banned the use of mobiles during the day. Principal Lisa Kerr said: “The effect of our 2017 ban was immediately obvious: the school was noisier, and children spoke to each other rather than scrolling through their phone. They held real conversations, catching up with each other face-to-face, not through social media. Concentration improved and, with it, exam results.”

The school has now gone a step further. Phones must be left in boarding houses during the day to prevent pupils having a sneaky look during classes or while walking around the campus.

Concerts ruined by phones

In February, the UK Government issued guidance to prohibit mobile phone use during the school day in England. Some schools have turned to Yondr pouches, invented by Graham Dugoni, who began selling them in San Francisco in 2014 after seeing a concert ruined by phones.

They have been used in gigs by the likes of Alicia Keys and Guns N' Roses, along with stand-up comedians including Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock. Bob Dylan will be using them on his forthcoming UK tour, including two dates at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall.

Classroom smartphone ban: Scotland should join France, Italy and others to restore order in schools

Dugoni might not have foreseen how big a market there was for his product in education. The pouches are now used in at least 3,000 schools in 21 countries, and counting. They allow for a total ban, rather than something more lukewarm that is open to abuse and therefore completely ineffective.

On arrival at school, each pupil is assigned a pouch into which they must lock their phone, smartwatch, AirPod, etc. They keep the pouch throughout the day and it is unlocked by being pressed against a device near the school exit on the way home. The system has proved a success at John Wallis Academy, a large state school in Kent, where pupils are finding much of their anxiety or social issues were bound up in addictive phone use.

Liberated from their screens, pupils are expecting better exam results, with one 15-year-old girl quoted as saying: “Before, I would just Google the answer under the desk. I didn’t really understand anything.”

Bunking off to watch Netflix

Teachers have had to pick up the pace to deal with more focused students. The school has also seen a drastic rise in attendance. If a pupil would prefer not to sit through geography, they no longer have the option of bunking off to the toilets to watch Netflix. Children now do all sorts of things during break times they weren’t doing before – playing tag, playing cards, flirting even.

Unesco, the United Nations’ education agency, has warned smartphones cause distraction, pose a risk to pupil privacy and can lead to cyberbullying. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has linked phone use to declining education performance in countries including Scotland.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association has found 71 per cent cent of teachers believe phones are having a poor impact on behaviour. A petition lodged at Holyrood last month by Adam Csenki, a music teacher from Moray, calling for the prohibition of mobile phone use in schools, has attracted more than 5,000 signatures.

Edinburgh City Council has delayed a decision on its approach to the issue until new guidance is issued by the Scottish Government in light of that published south of the Border earlier this year. And yet so far, Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth has responded with about as much alacrity as she has done over concerns about rising school violence and declining education standards under the appallingly misnamed “curriculum for excellence”.

Mobile technology has evolved faster than our ability to work out how best to use it. Unthinkingly, we have allowed mobile phones to creep into our classrooms. Thinkingly, we should ban them.