‘Put learners first’: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools::Major UN report issues warning over excessive use, with one in six countries already banning the devices
I used a PalmOS device in school to manage my school schedule. So this was my 1st thought:
“Banning mobile phones entirely from school premises would raise some practical concerns, for example for parents wanting to contact their children while travelling between school and home.”
Feature phones still exist. It would be great if the massive stockpiles of prematurely discarded dumbphones could be recycled to students. Maybe bring back offline PalmOS types of things for scheduling.
“…Some pupils will also use phones as payment methods on public transport.”*
Easily solved: smartphones go into the locker at the start of the day. Also, bring back the ability to pay cash on the public transport vehicle – this will help push back on the #warOnCash. We could also say there’s a systemic inefficiency if students don’t have season passes on public transport.
Putting lots of Smartphones into lockers will probably lead to even more lockers being broken into… those things aren`t exactly safes. Also, not every school everywhere actually has lockers.
I would bet it’s a slim enough minority of students who pay public transport on a per-trip basis that theft would not be from arbitrary break ins. A student would have to (recklessly?) use a high-end phone for this & be spotted putting an uncovered phone in the locker.
The best security is a good insurance policy. Not sure if high-end phones tend to have an insurance policy because I avoid them myself.
