The Secretary of State for Education has today announced that it will become illegal for schools to allow mobile phones in classrooms.
This in itself is not a huge issue for us, as we routinely collect phones from pupils at the start of the day, allow access at lunchtime for students who go off-site and hand them back at 3pm. One newspaper today cites the famous Michaela Academy - the so-called strictest school in the country, and also one of the best-performing - which apparently does exactly as we do. “This one act will transform classrooms across the country” says the headmistress, Ms Burbalsingh on X. Not true in our case, or hers, but I know what she means.
I have thought for years that children who make their own way to and from school should have a mobile phone for safety reasons. I know many parents and grandparents will fondly recall the days when they could walk to school (in my case, three miles each way, which explains my current high level of fitness and trim physique) at a time when mobiles weren’t even dreamt of - “and it didn’t do us any harm”. And when we could ride off on our bikes in the morning and turn up for tea several hours later without anyone (in my case thankfully) knowing where we’d been or what we’d been doing. Etc. Not very helpful really: the world was different then and despite the enormous amounts of money spent on safeguarding, education, health and safety and policing it was much, much safer. Not a golden age, certainly, but a lot safer. I find that in my lifetime (i.e., at least the last 30 years) the murder rate in the UK has increased by 500%, well ahead of the population increase over the same time. That despite the period in question being seen by many as a time of human progress, enlightened attitudes and so on.
It seems to me that one of the more enlightened things parents can do now is to use all the technology available to keep their children safe.
But they don’t need phones in the classroom.
Nick Gibb, who has been Schools Minister since the time of Disraeli (or so it seems)*, has suggested that if parents wish to keep their children safe before and after school they should buy them a non-Smart phone - a “brick” as he calls it. There might be something in that …
* Some might say I have been slightly rude about Mr Gibb in a couple of recent blogs. Not at all - I am really complimenting him: his very longevity amid the short-termism of politics is testament to his great qualities. He is very good and his lengthy tenure in the same Department probably means he knows what he is talking about. He has been around an awful long time, though.