‘Focused on teacher, not TikTok’: Details of school phone ban revealed

Education Minister Grace Grace has revealed more details about how a mobile phone ban in Queensland state schools will work in practice.

Education Minister Grace Grace denied the government was playing catch up with its mobile phone ban in schools, saying times had moved on, as she revealed more details about how it will practically work.

There will be exemptions from the phone ban for students with medical reasons, while specifics of phones will be kept and punishments for breaches administered will be left up to individual schools within certain guidelines to be developed.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare strongly backed Queensland joining the ban, saying taking phones out of classrooms meant students “would be focused on the teacher, not focused on TikTok”.

Minister Jason Clare and Queensland Minister Grace Grace tour The Learning Sanctuary, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

The blanket mobile phone ban will begin from Term 1 in 2024 and include lunchbreaks.

Ms Grace said specific details on how the bans works would be developed in the coming months with other states to ensure a nationally consistent approach, to ensure students who live near the border or who move interstate are not impacted.

But she confirmed there would be some exemptions available and that parents would be educated on who the ban will work before it starts next year.

“We’ll spend the next couple of terms now working out these guidelines, working with the other states and territories, but also with parents,” Ms Grace said.

“The guidelines will have exceptions, of course, particularly for students who have health reasons why they may need to have their phone with them, and sometimes students need them for educational purposes as well.”

Specifics on how the ban is implemented, such as where and how phones are kept, will be decided at a school level, the Minister said.

“If you’re in a very small school in regional Queensland, you might leave it in your bag or you might give it to a dedicated person,” she said.

“If you’re in an urban setting, where there are thousands of students, it might be that the school has those phones in their lockers or keep them in their bags.

“But they will be away for the day. How schools implemented them, the policy guidelines will give them the options to do that.”

Punishments for students who break the rules will also be determined by the individual schools and principals.

“Schools are already implementing this, 95 per cent of our schools are already doing this. Sometimes it’s just as simple as taking the phone off them and they don’t get it until they leave in the afternoon,” Ms Grace said.

“If there is someone constantly (breaking rules) principals and teachers know when they need to take the next step and they do it as a last resort and we’ve got a lot of trust in their judgment.”

While many other states have already implemented bans and 95 per cent of schools have already implemented some form of ban, Ms Grace denied the state was playing catch up.

“There’s no catch up. We’re already there. This is just about taking a uniform approach, covering breaks,” she said.

Ms Grace has previous pushed back against the ban and suggested it could “create more problems than trying to be solved”.

Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: Liam Kidston

She said the problems she talked about were implementing the recommendations of the previous cyber-bullying taskforce.

“They looked at this extensively and they did not recommend a blanket ban. Now obviously, times have moved a bit,” she said.

“We didn’t want to disrupt what principals and school leaders were doing at that time.”

Education Minister Jason Clare strongly endorsed Queensland joining the mobile phone ban for schools.

“I think it’s only a good thing to take the phone out of the classroom and children are focused on the teacher, not focused on TikTok,” Mr Clare said.

“But as I said just a moment ago, it has an impact in the playground as well.

“If you’re not focused on scrolling through TikTok or Instagram or whatever it is, because your phone’s not there, you’re more likely to be talking to your friends and playing with your friends in the playground.”