Ontario to ban cellphones in classrooms next school year

Enforcement of the cellphone ban would be up to individual boards and schools in Ontario. (Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

Ontario will ban cell phones in the classroom during the next school year. This is a new policy that would prohibit the use of cell phones during the instructional time as of 2019–20. This would be from September.

In fact, through a statement on Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Lisa Thompson said that a formal announcement will be made soon.

Thompson said, “Ontario students should be able to focus on their learning, not their cell phones”, she also added, “By prohibiting the use of cell phones that distract learning, we are helping students focus on acquiring basic skills. they need, like reading, writing and math”.

In itself, this is not big news since some schools already have similar policies. However, the province will issue a directive for all public schools for the 2019–20 school year, government sources told The Canadian Press. The way to enforce the prohibition would depend on individual boards and schools.

The benefits that would bring

According to a document of the London School of Economics and Political Science of 2015 found that “the performance of students in high-level exams increases significantly” with the ban on mobile phones. The improvements were largely observed among students who usually had the lowest achievements.

“This suggests that restricting mobile phone use may be a low-cost policy to reduce educational inequalities”, the study found.

However, the School Board of the District of Toronto used to have a cell phone ban. Despite this, reverted after four years to allow teachers to dictate what works best for their classrooms. The board has said previously that enforcing a total ban was almost impossible, and said that to curb the use of technology would put limits on educational opportunities as well.

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Source: Allison Jones, The Canadian Press | CBC News