Mobile ban bungle: Kids can still use smartphones at primary school
Despite repeated assurances from the state government mobile phones would be banned from the first day of term, primary and high school children will still be able to use their phones at school.
NSW
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Primary students at public schools will be free to use their mobile phones when school returns next week, despite repeated assurances from the state government the devices would be banned from the first day of term.
The delay has revealed a breakdown between the NSW Department of Education, which says the bans won’t happen until the end of the year, and Education Minister Sarah Mitchell, who
has implored principals to go out on their own and implement bans at their schools sooner.
Experts have warned the delay of the primary school mobile phone ban will prolong students’ exposure to online bullying, sharing of sexually explicit images and predatory behaviour from strangers, and keep kids distracted in class.
The ban on mobile phones in the state’s public primary schools, announced by premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2018, would have already been a year late if it took effect next week as promised.
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But the education department conceded the mobile phone ban will not apply until the “end of 2020”, by which stage it will be close to two years overdue.
Yet it took the Victorian government, and a prominent Sydney private school, just six months to bring in student phone bans.
The Victorian mobile phone ban applies across both primary and secondary schools and will come into force as promised from the first day of term this year.
Victorian students will need to switch off their phones and store them securely in lockers from the start of the school day until the final bell.
The NSW government will leave it up to principals to decide whether students put their phones in lockers, keep them in schoolbags, or hand them over to teachers during school hours, when the ban eventually applies.
Despite the Department of Education admitting a primary school mobile phone ban won’t operate until the end of the year, Ms Mitchell said: “As Minister, I’ve made it clear that I expect mobile phones to be banned in primary schools from early 2020.
“Now that the policy is in place, I expect principals to be working with their staff, parents and students to ensure the ban is upheld.”
Child psychologist and architect of the mobile phone ban Michael Carr-Gregg was baffled by the latest delay, after first being hired to head up a review in June 2018.
“I’m puzzled, I’m disappointed and I’m worried what this will mean in terms of cyber-bullying and the quality of education in NSW schools,” Mr Carr-Gregg said.
“The whole purpose of putting in the ban was to bring down the rates of cyber-bullying and harassment on social media.
“This delay seems extraordinary to me.”
It took Parramatta private school The King’s School six months of trialling a phone ban for Year 7 and Year 8 students before it was rolled out across the whole school from Kindergarten to Year 12 halfway through last year.
Since phones were banned during school hours, teachers have doled out fewer detentions and have noticed students pay more attention in their lessons.
“Teachers can teach in class knowing boys don’t have phones on them and can’t be distracted,” The King’s School Director of Development Aaron Malouf said.
“There is also very strong anecdotal evidence that the incidences of online bullying and anti-social behaviour have reduced.
“The boys interact with each other more and have gone back to playing old-school games in the playground like cricket, basketball and touch football, rather than gathering around a table with their laptops and mobile phones to play online games.”
Students at The King’s School are simply told to leave their phone in their schoolbags or boarding houses and not to take them out during the school day.
The NSW government has refused to ban phones from public high schools in the face of mounting pressure from federal Education Minister Dan Tehan.
Originally published as Mobile ban bungle: Kids can still use smartphones at primary school
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