Education Council advised on school phone bans

New research on school mobile phone bans has revealed a startling impact on student performance, that may have repercussions on the Victorian Government’s ban.

Australia’s education ministers will be advised on international research that reveals a mobile phone ban in schools boosts student performance.

Research on English schools that banned or restricted mobile phones found that pupils gained up to 10 days education every year by limiting the distraction.

Poor performing students were found to be losing up to two hours a week from mobile phone distraction, while other students on average lost one hour a week.

Assistant Professor of Economics Louis-Philippe Beland, from Canada’s Carleton University, will present his research findings to the Education Council in Melbourne on Friday.

McKinnon Secondary students already keep their phones in their lockers. Picture: Jason Edwards. Picture: Jason Edwards

It comes after the Victorian Government banned all mobile phones in public schools, while some private schools in Melbourne and Sydney followed suit or already had restrictions in place.

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“What we believe is mobile phones are leading to distraction — if you restrict the use or ban, it can increase student performance,” Prof Beland said of his research, which analysed student performance data from schools in four English cities.

“We found very strong impacts for low performing students.

“I think they are important results and we believe this could be a low cost policy to increase student performance.”

His research found student performance in exams increased by 6.4 per cent of a standard deviation in high stakes exams, or up to 14 per cent for struggling pupils.

The Education Council is also set to discuss the breakaway review of NAPLAN, with the terms of reference being released by the Victorian, NSW and QLD governments this week.

@ashargoon