It is a question that keeps some parents awake at night. Should children be allowed to take mobile phones to school? Now economists claim to have an answer. For parents who want to boost their children’s academic prospects, it is no.
The effect of banning mobile phones from school premises adds up to the equivalent of an extra week’s schooling over a student’s academic year, according to research by Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy, published by the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
“Ill Communication: The Impact of Mobile Phones on Student Performance” found that after schools banned mobile phones, the test scores of students aged 16 improved by 6.4%. The economists reckon that this is the “equivalent of adding five days to the school year”.
This article was originally published in The Guardian newspaper on 16th May 2015 and since then has been re-posted on many school blogs and websites. For sometime I have been contemplating on the potential harm, excessive mobile phone use has on our students wellbeing and what steps we could take to reduce it. Presently we have a system of handing in phones during lesson times and some may remember that I took a stand early in 2016, which landed in the national press. We have also surveyed parents and students for their views and ideas, unsurprisingly students are reluctant to lose their mobile connectivity, whereas a vast majority of parents support some reduction. This week I have canvassed some students in KS4 about their screen time and was shocked to discover, 44 hrs weekly use is not uncommon. Coupled with their tales of poor sleep patterns and a constant tired feeling – it is clear that something needs to be done.
Over the next few weeks we are planning a strategy to allow students the opportunity to go ‘Mobile free’ on Mondays. This sounds simple, but the logistics of storing away phones safely and getting time for students to retrieve them at the end of the day, does take planning. We are enlisting the support of Post 16 students, to volunteer to lead the way and set a good example. I fully understand the need for mobiles to and from school, particularly as the winter days are short. However, the positives of having some time away from mobile phones and a potential increase in academic grades- must be worth the short lived pain. More to follow.
