The Minister for Education Norma Foley is planning to ban mobile phones from all second-level schools in response to research which links use of devices to student distraction and cyberbullying.
While most secondary schools either restrict the use of mobile phones or oblige students to place them in lockers, Norma Foley said she was convinced a wider ban was the best way forward.
The Irish Times asked readers to share their opinions on the plan.
Sinead Walsh, a parent of three teenagers from Co Laois, said she “completely supports” the ban, having broached the subject of phone usage during the school day at parent teacher meetings last year.
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“A teacher actually told me ‘this is how children learn now, we play educational games for the last 15-20 minutes of class, as they don’t have the attention span to learn for an hour’. I think this is ridiculous,” she said.
“Without phones, they will have to learn to speak to each other, to socialise and engage with their teachers. Most children now engage only through social media and chat groups and I’m sure the use of phones in school presents problems for the teachers and staff,” Walsh said.
Jennifer O’Donnell, from Co Donegal, also supported “a complete ban” on smartphones in secondary school, having brought forward similar plans for a pledge to the local school in her area.
‘There was considerable support from parents of the school. However, our local secondary school has a very relaxed approach to smartphones. I think it would be very difficult for principals to implement a smartphone ban without governmental support,” she said.
Bryan Hickson from Co Dublin said a “chance encounter” with the chief executive of Cyber Safe Kids, an Irish charity dedicated to making children safer in the online world, shifted his perspective on smartphones in schools.
“As a father to two young children, I’m deeply invested in ensuring they are both empowered and protected in this digital age,” he said.
“I’ve seen how smartphones can become a gateway to online risks if not properly managed,” Hickson said, adding that he was now working with nine local schools to create smartphone-free environments.
But this isn’t “just a school or government issue; it’s a societal one” and parents need to “take the lead in setting boundaries and teaching responsible tech use”, he said.
“After all, it’s parents who buy the phones, install the apps, and lift the restrictions. We can’t wait for someone else to fix the problems in our homes.”
Celine O’Loan, from Co Galway, said kids should “learn how to communicate again in the company of others, learn how to figure things out without Google, and entertain themselves or sit down and read a book”.
The parent of two said she felt she could “do something to protect them by acting now” and dealing with the effects of cyberbullying and insecurities of body image, which she felt stemmed from “smartphone and internet access”.
Teacher Elaine Byrne, from Co Cork, said she had “seen first hand the negative impact of smartphones for children and teenagers”.
“Taking phones out of schools will make it far easier for parents to protect their young teens from these issues by delaying smartphone ownership until a more developmentally appropriate time,” she said.
However, teacher Eoghan Cleary, in Co Wicklow, said while Foley’s plan was “well intentioned”, it “would not be necessary if adequate protections for children existed online”.
The removal of smartphones during school time would lead to better academic performance, higher attention levels, better memory and lower feelings of anxiety, Cleary said, and most schools already “do what they can”.
But without involving students so they feel ownership over the measure, such bans would be perceived as “just another rule to be evaded, resulting in additional teacher-policing of an issue that smartphones really just provide the gateway to: the risks, harms and addictive nature of the totally unregulated world of social media”.
The smartphone ban “only addresses the impact on student academics, but what we need is robust regulation to protect children from the crimes that are perpetrated against them every day online,” he added.
Recently retired primary schoolteacher John Murphy, from Co Dublin, felt the plan was “missing the real issue”.
“The vast majority of problems, certainly at primary level, are caused by the use of mobile phones outside of school,” he said.
“Schools are dealing with the fallout from this societal problem. Schools can and have been addressing the use of phones in schools. But until society, including parents and children but not them alone, address our usage of smartphones in particular, schools are fighting a battle they cannot win,” Murphy said.
Parent Fiona Harvey, from Co Donegal, said she agreed with a ban but was “not sure if it’s feasible in practice”.
“Kids use Google Classroom at school and phones would be used in certain classes for workload,” she said, adding that it would be “interesting to see how this would be rolled out for each school”.
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