The Western Australian Government has announced that they’re going to bring in a ban on all public school students using mobile phones during school hours. The new rule comes into effect next year. The idea is that it will reduce distractions in the classroom and thus make a much better learning environment for school kids. But did the politicians even talk to the teachers first?
Look, I get it. We all know technology is a distraction in the classroom. Remember when the federal Labor Government decided to give every high school kid a free laptop? I was in year 9 when we got ours, and all we did was take peace-and-pout selfies and play a pirated version of Plants Vs. Zombies. Yeah, I know, there was a reason the government didn’t keep giving kids those computers.
In saying that, do you know what I did when I was bored at school before being given a laptop? Stare at the ceiling and make shapes out of the suspicious stains above our heads. Phones are just something more fun to be distracted by, not the reason kids are distracted.
But all this misses what might be the most important question: why does the government think that this, of all things, is what they should be wasting their time one?
Name me a single school that currently allows kids to scroll through social media on their phones during class time. There aren’t any. Phones have been banned from classrooms since kids started bringing their mum’s old Nokia brick to school and tried to play Snake subtly under the desk. Does the Western Australian Government really think that a stern word from the Premier is what’s going to get students to put away their phone?
It feels like we’re treating teachers as if they’re babysitters, just there to make sure that kids get off their phones, don’t burn the house down, and get to bed on time. The reality obviously couldn’t be further from the truth, and time spent enforcing rules that the government has handed down is time that could be spent actually teaching.
Pat Byrne is the president of the State School Teachers’ Union of WA. She’s got no time for this latest addition to the rule book.
“At a time when teachers are already warning that red tape and administrative demands are taking them away from their core role, the union is concerned this initiative will be yet another impost on teaching time and school budgets as schools devise ways of collection and secure storage of phones during the day.
“There is also a concern from principals and teachers that a blanket ban will be a potential point of conflict between school staff and parents, as well as staff and students.”
Pat Byrne
Teachers work their butts off. People love to talk about how easy they must have it, just hanging out with kids and not having to work on school holidays. If that was the case, then we wouldn’t have results like 40% of new teachers leaving the profession in the first five years, or up to 53% of people with an education degree working in a different field.
Teaching is hard enough, and the last thing teachers need is paternalistic micromanagement making their lives harder. Maybe offer them some support instead, and trust that they know when to take a phone off of a kid without the government telling them to.