“Now we are starting to come out the other side of the pandemic, many parents are finding it hard to ratchet this increased screen time and social media usage back. As online exposure goes up, so do the risks that something will go wrong online.”
In a letter explaining her decision to parents, Jenny Allum, the principal of SCEGGS, said teachers were concerned about greater use of phones, “a seeming increase in students’ dependency on them, and just the plain distractibility of students, too”.
She told them Herald: “This seems particularly so after the COVID lockdowns, but perhaps [it is] for other reasons too.”
SCEGGS’ decision comes after Shore School dumped its BYO device policy amid concerns that students were gaming, gambling and streaming Netflix while they were supposed to be listening to their teachers.
There is fiery debate in the education community over phone bans, with some teachers and principals arguing that students must be taught to use their phones responsibly and bans will drive them underground, while others say their presence in the classroom is difficult to police and has a major impact on learning.
There is a shortage of robust evidence on the issue.
Professor Pasi Sahlberg, of Southern Cross University, is opposed to bans. He surveyed students, parents and teachers as part of his Growing Up Digital project, and they have observed a decline in students’ readiness to learn at school. “They come to school tired, they can’t stay on task,” he said.
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He said the solution should involve parents, schools and students working together, rather than a ban during school hours. “[A ban is like] aspirin for lung cancer,” he said. “It takes the pain away but it doesn’t address the root cause.”
Many teachers and parents support bans, saying students should be given support to focus on their primary objective, which is learning. One of them, Mark Clark, who has been teaching in public schools for more than 40 years, said he has “never seen so many distracted students in my entire teaching life”.
“I constantly see students who are obviously looking at non-educational material and who click out whenever I come near. There are constant arguments about putting phones away and closing laptops so that I can have their attention.”
A literature review by Alan Parsons, an academic and deputy head of Newcastle Grammar, cited studies that suggested an impact on attention, academic achievement and sleep quality.
While he found many of the studies were correlational rather than causal, “the current literature suggests caution”.
Yondr, a company that supplies lockable pouches for phones to schools, said its Australian client list had grown from six schools in 2019 to 134 this year, including 100 in NSW.
Newington College introduced a ban in late 2018, telling students to keep phones in their lockers during the day because they led to lower concentration, higher stress and “warped views on reality”.
Deputy headmaster David Roberts said that, three-and-a-half years later, the ban had ensured boys spend their break times talking and moving. “You don’t see at our school what I’ve seen at other schools – boys on their phones at recess or lunch,” he said.
Phone-free zone: Students from Newington College play outside. The school has a phone.Credit:Peter Rae
“It’s frequently asked by parents what is our mobile phone policy, [and] there’s often a sense of relief that boys leave their mobile phones in their lockers during the day.”
A spokeswoman for the NSW Education Department said public schools had a secure and filtered internet service, and teachers monitored the use of digital devices. “Inappropriate use by students is dealt with in accordance with school procedures,” she said.
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