‘Three strikes’ policy on mobile phones in schools proposed

Legislation prohibiting students from using their mobile phones in school, including a “three strikes” policy where students would have their phones confiscated for periods, has been debated in the Seanad.

Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell introduced the Bill under which students caught using their mobiles would lose them for a day for first breach of the rules, a week for a second offence and for a school term for a third.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton said he would not oppose the legislation but he warned against it being "so prescriptive" and said it "smacks of a top-down approach".

Mr Craughwell, a former president of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, said the Education (Digital Devices in Schools) Bill provided for a standardised regulatory framework for all schools on the use of mobile phones and digital devices.

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The Bill also requires all mobile phones to be labelled and handed in at the start of the school day and returned at day’s end.

The legislation also provides for a code for the use of other digital devices and requires school boards to provide information from experts to parents, pupils and staff.

Mr Craughwell cited research which showed that by the age of 12 nine out of 10 pupils have smart phones and said there was evidence that the increase “coincided with class disruption on an unprecedented scale”.

He said 60 per cent of 1,000 secondary school teachers surveyed wanted a ban on mobile phone use in schools and a further 43 per cent said “classroom discipline was worse than it was five years ago as a result of smart phone usage”.

Referring to the success of a ban in Blennerville National School in Co Kerry on mobile phones, he said the effects of the ban were “almost immediate and entirely positive”.

Internet safety

Mr Bruton said there were “very prescriptive sections about labelling and surrendering phones, a prohibition on use with penalty clauses if students are found to be in possession and new obligations on boards”.

“I find that nothing annoys principals as much as when they are told that Marlborough Street [Department of Education headquarters] has put another obligation on them to do something,” he said.

The Minister said the Government had committed to spending €420 million on digital technology for schools over the next decade and that they were developing a Government strategy on internet safety to be published before the summer.

Independent Senator Victor Boyhan, who supported the Bill, said it was important to strike a balance between the benefits of using technology for educational purposes and the negative effects of unsupervised use of devices within schools.

“An outright ban on devices is not the right way to go,” and he did not support “a nanny state and people at the top telling people what they cannot do”. Education and support was needed.

Fine Gael Senator Maria Byrne, a teacher in the "only accredited Apple school in Ireland", said she understood what Mr Craughwell was trying to achieve.

“I believe technology should be embraced in schools and it is a valuable tool,” she said, adding that the use of IPads in schools was “more or less within the supervised environment”.