There is one good news from UK that the PM Rishi Sunak has banned mobile phones across all schools in England.
UK PM Sunak Advocates for Mobile Phone Ban in Schools
Making the announcement on the X platform via a video message, UK PM said that “Almost one-third of secondary school people said that their lessons were disrupted by phone”.
He said that the schools that have already banned the mobile phones have reported a ‘better learning’ environment’.
As per England’s government guidance, it shall be the head teachers who shall monitor the mobile phone usage throughout the school day including at break times.
While there are many schools already having the ban, but in order to make the rule all the more consistent throughout all schools, UK is driving this on national level.
Different approaches of ban include banning phones from the school premises, handing in phones on arrival at school and then keeping phones securely locked in lockers while school hours and only returning while day end.
Mobile Phone Usage in UK Schools
As per the data by Office of Communications (OFCOM), UK media watchdog, as many as 97% of children by the age of 12 already have own mobile phones.
As per the Department for Education (DfE), mobile phone usage at school can lead to online bullying, distraction, and classroom disruption which, in turn, can lead to lost learning time.
ParentKind’s National Parent Survey latest data reveals that 44% of parents are concerned about the time that their wards spend on electronic devices, which has risen to 50 percent of parents of secondary schoolchildren.
As per the DfE, several schools have been successful in keeping the phone at bay by using tactics such as introducing lockers with charging points for students to ensure they don’t come into classrooms.
Notably, other European countries like France, Italy and Portugal have already restricted mobile phone use in schools. As per PM government, such a move by UK also brings it in line with their European counterparts when it comes to subverting the smartphone usage menace in school and learning in particular.
