Key points
- Students are required to keep mobile phones off during school hours
- Leaders and teachers reported increased focus during learning time
- The ban enables students to focus on positive activities
ISLAMABAD: A 12-month review of the mobile phone ban in South Australian public schools has revealed substantial improvements in student behaviour, according to the state’s Education Department.
Ninety-three per cent of leaders have reported a decline in staff time spent following up on phone-related problems, and the majority of staff and parents reported increased focus and more positive break time activities, the review said.
A survey of parents, staff and students conducted as part of a one-year review of the policy had more than 3,000 submissions, with more than three-quarters of staff and two-thirds of parents saying the ban was having a positive impact.
Anti-social behaviours
Around 93 per cent of leaders and 79 per cent of teachers reported a decrease in staff time spent following up issues with phones and social media.
About 83 per cent of leaders and 75 per cent of teachers reported more positive break-time activities.
Similarly, 76 per cent of leaders and 70 per cent of teachers reported increased focus and engagement during learning time.
South Australia has the nation’s strongest mobile phone ban – “off and away for the whole day”, including during breaks, the state’s Education Department said.
This has played a significant role in helping with anti-social behaviours at schools and reducing incidents, it added.
All students in all South Australian public schools are required to keep their mobile phones and other personal devices switched off and out of sight during school hours, unless they have been given staff permission to use their personal devices in line with a policy exemption.
Phone ban in US
At a red-brick school in Virginia, Hayden Jones is one of 1,000 students banned from using their phones as part of a trial hoping to boost learning.
According to AFP, mobile phone bans come alongside research suggesting that social media use increases the likelihood of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression in young people.
Advocacy groups regularly cite these studies as justification for school phone bans.
Around 76 per cent of US public schools — from liberal California to conservative Florida — had some sort of ban on non-academic phone use, according to the latest Department of Education figures, with several state-wide measures also in place or under consideration.
